One More Skill
by Bl4ckSun
Summary: Sakura needs one last step in her training to be considered for Jounin testing, but does she have the guts to go through with it? With Tsunade's help, maybe she can finally learn the art of seduction. KakaxSaku
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters

Sakura needs one last step in her training to be considered for Jounin testing, but does she have the guts to go through with it? With Tsunade's help, maybe she can finally learn the art of seduction. KakaxSaku

* * *

"You want me to..." Haruno Sakura felt faint as she tried to echo the Hokage's task for her. Tsunade's grim expression did not waver, though Sakura could have sworn that her eyes grew a little softer; sympathy for her treasured apprentice, perhaps?

"I know, Sakura. This won't be easy for you. But this is another step in your development as a kunoichi, and I expect you to take it seriously. This is a task eventually assigned to all shinobi males as well as females, so you're not being singled out; it is important for all growing jounin to learn." Sakura perked up slightly, though it seemed impossible to recover from that kind of shock.

"Growing...jounin?" she repeated, surprise and pleasure in her voice. Tsunade smiled warmly, briefly allowing her affection for Sakura to break through her seemingly cold exterior. Ah, her poor little kunoichi. How could she expect anything else, when under the Hokage's tutelage? "Shishou, I'm not advanced enough for that, am I?"

"You're already being considered for testing," said Tsunade proudly. Hatake Kakashi had been the youngest jounin to ever be tested, but after him there had been no others. At seventeen, Sakura was approaching the age generally accepted for testing, and her expansive skillset had already impressed the board. She had no doubt that her apprentice would make jounin within the year. However, she had neglected one particularly important skillset, and one that she suspected had also been neglected by her student. As Sakura's excitement over her prospective testing began to wane though, the conversation they had been having began to return full force, and she paled slightly.

"But shishou, I don't want to...to...learn that kind of stuff. Not for this, not this way." She blushed hard as she tried to avoid thinking about it. Ever since Sasuke, she had pretty much given up on boys. She hadn't had the time for them, not under Tsunade's domineering schedule. Once she had realized the depth of her own talent, she had thrown herself into training in lieu of flirting, and the progress really showed now. She was an accomplished medic, a powerful shinobi, and an extremely intelligent woman; she was miffed at the idea of using her body instead of her skill. Even though Tsunade said that the males had to learn it too, she doubted that they even used this kind of skill very often.

Tsunade seemed to read straight through her, as she usually did. Her catlike gold eyes narrowed.

"Sakura-chan, you would consider me an accomplished ninja, would you not?" she asked sweetly. Sakura hesitated for a moment before nodding, sensing the trap. "How often to accomplished ninja wind up in troublesome situations?"

"Um...pretty much all the time," admitted Sakura, recalling how many times she had patched up members of the Hidden Leaf ANBU. She could probably recognize them by body parts at this point.

"And if you were facing a life or death situation, would you rather have extra tricks up your sleeve, or not enough?"

Sakura sighed and hung her head in defeat. "Extra, shishou..."

Tsunade smiled, though it lacked triumph. It seemed more sad than anything else. She wanted nothing more than to knock out every intern that shot a double-take at her young apprentice, and yet here she was, assigning her this awful task herself. But she remembered having to do it, as did every jonin. It was pretty much a requirement once you got to a certain level; for some it was a particularly easy mission, and for others it was monumentally difficult. Tsunade knew it would be the latter for Sakura.

"Okay. Here are the details of your mission..."

* * *

Sakura groaned quietly as she sat at the bar, the scroll tight in her shaking fist. She had read it so many times that she could almost recite it word for word, but each sentence was made her heart sink a little more. Though she didn't dare open the scroll again, her mind ran through the details mercilessly.

_'Your mission is to seduce a member of Konoha's Leaf Village. This mission does not require sexual intercourse, though it allows for it. Something of high personal value must be taken from the victim, to prove the success of the mission. Details as follows:_

_1. Must be a shinobi of at least jounin level_

_2. Must not be in the same age range_

_3. May be of either gender_

_4. Must not be someone with whom the holder has had a prior or current sexual relationship_

_5. Holder's choice must be approved by the Hokage before he/she begins the mission'_

It was a short scroll, hardly worth the wooden rollers, but Sakura cursed it repeatedly. She wasn't like Ino, who flirted effortlessly with multiple boys. She wasn't exquisitely pretty like Hinata, who naturally drew the eye regardless of what she did. Sakura had developed into quite the tomboy. She ran through a list of jonin she knew, but it was painfully short. Jiraiya, Kurenai, _Gai!_, Tsunade, Genma, Anko, Ibiki...she couldn't imagine most of them being approved by Tsunade, or being open to advances. Jiraiya and Genma were too easy. There was no way Tsunade would approve them. She tried to think of older men she knew, but her mind continuously drew blanks. Kurenai was definitely out; with Asuma gone, it would be absolutely inappropriate for that kind of thing.

Anko? Sakura was pretty sure Anko was dead set on men, and she knew that Anko would catch on quickly. This mission would be extremely difficult, as all of the jounin had already dealt with it themselves. If they caught on, they would without doubt make it impossible for her to complete it. That meant that Anko and Tsunade were absolute no-gos...

Sakura sighed in frustration, turning around on her stool to lean back against the bar. Maybe somebody she didn't know yet? But then, how would she know what to take from them? She ground her teeth in anger, scanning the room with a predator's gaze. She recognized some members of ANBU from their scars and chakra signatures; maybe a mask?

ANBU agents would be a serious gamble, though. While she doubted that any of them would hurt another Leaf shinobi, she didn't know any of them personally, and they all seemed to be kind of insane. On top of that, they were remarkably closed to advances. She had seen Ino throw a few batted lashes whenever she visited Sakura at the hospital, but to no avail. Relationships in ANBU were often painful and dangerous, and many of them avoided cavorting with the opposite sex.

Sakura sighed and turned back to the bar. She waved a crisp bill, and the bartender was all ears.

"Shot of sake, please," she muttered. A small cup was pushed over to her; as Tsunade's apprentice, she was recognized all over the Hidden Leaf Village. It really paid off, since shinobi weren't supposed to carry identification of any kind. She downed the liquor and cringed slightly as it burned down to her stomach. Immediately feeling warmer, she turned back to survey the bar again.

"FOREHEAD!"

Sakura flinched as though Ino had thrown a fist, and jumped to her feet to find an escape. Too late; the blonde grabbed her arm and slammed her back into her bar stool. She gave Sakura an exasperated glower before plopping into the seat next to her. She waved down the barkeeper and ordered a martini. Accustomed already to the pushy shinobi, he mixed her a drink without too much fuss. Sometimes it just wasn't worth a fight.

"No need to seem so excited to see me," pouted Ino grumpily. Her moodiness faded with the arrival of her pink girly-drink. Ino's mood shifted like the tides. "I just wanted to congratulate you on your new mission!"

"Y-yuh...how did you know?" gaped Sakura, her face immediately turning beet red. Ino quirked an eyebrow and pointed to the scroll still clenched in Sakura's fist.

"Clearly it's a new mission, or you wouldn't be carrying the scroll around," said Ino pointedly. She sipped daintily at her drink as Sakura let out a sigh of relief. If Ino knew exactly what the mission was, there would be _no possible way_ for her to complete it. Everyone in Konoha would be braced for the horror of Sakura's amateur attempts at seduction. She flushed even harder at the thought. "So, what is it?"

Sakura shook her head and shoved the scroll into her bag. "I-it's nothing, Ino!" she insisted. "Just some stupid delivery this weekend!" Ino seemed to buy it for the moment. It _had_ been a small scroll. She shrugged and continued to sip. But Sakura recognized an opportunity when she saw it, and though she wasn't allowed to tell anybody what she was doing, it wasn't technically against the rules to glean for information...not if they didn't know that was what you were doing.

"So...how's your love life going?" asked Sakura timidly, anxious that Ino would be suspicious at her sudden change of conversation. She should have known her friend better, though; Ino instantly launched into her latest affair, apparently she had finally gotten her claws into a member of ANBU.

"Kim is wonderful, he really is, but honestly he's almost impossible to deal with. All the secrecy and constant disappearing, one night he'll be staying at my apartment, and then I'll wake up in the morning and he's just gone! And trust me, it's pure misery, Sakura. I can never tell if he's lying to me, he's so secretive...and noncommital, too. Let me tell you, it took me ages to convince him just to be my boyfriend! And don't get me started on trying to hold a conversation with the man..."

'_Well, that strikes out ANBU members_,' thought Sakura sadly. She was nowhere near as skilled as Ino when it came to men, and if her friend was having difficulty, it would be damn near impossible for Sakura to hold one. The best she could hope for was Jiraiya, Konoha's pervert, and even then she was pretty hopeless. He liked women like Tsunade, with the kind of bust that broke men's necks.

Sakura sighed as Ino carried on, going way too in depth about her sex life for Sakura's tastes. As much as she knew she needed this information, she couldn't bring herself to imagine _doing_ any of the raunchy acts Ino described.

"And he...but I didn't...so he...and when he _licked_!...crumbled...thought I would burst! So I...but he didn't stop..."

Sakura downed another shot in an attempt to distract herself. Ino's musings made her face burn, and she was desperate for an escape at this point. She regretted initiating this conversation at all. '_I'm going to fail this mission, Tsunade won't put me in for jounin, my career ends here...all because I'm too shy to flirt with boys!'_

"Why did you want to know?" Ino's one mild sentence surfaced finally, among the gruesome details of her current relationship. Sakura shrugged, her panic dimmed by alcohol.

"Oh, no reason," she sighed. "I'm kind of interested in someone older, but I don't know if he'd be into me. I think he thinks I'm too young for him." She secretly applauded her own sneakiness as Ino immediately launched into fierce approval.

"Don't even think that, Sakura-chan! Trust me, older men are just as easily swayed as younger, you just have to start coming off as more mature. You're kind of skinny, but you have the hips to show for your age, you just have to start accentuating your more...feminine features." Ino smiled and began to pile Sakura's hair in top of her head. "See? A nice updo, some makeup, and you'll have any man's attention, no question about it. Older or younger, men always like to look at a fresh pair; even if they're as modest as yours!"

Sakura felt a vein twitch in her forehead as she realized that Ino was talking about her breasts, and was at the moment pulling the V-neck of her medic shirt deeper. "Ino-piiiiig..." she growled menacingly. Ino rolled her eyes and huffed, though she drew back in defeat.

"Whatever, but if you want to attract an older man, you need to start...well, not looking so naive."

* * *

Sakura felt more of a failure than ever as she dragged her drunk butt back to her lonely apartment, an apartment that had never had a male pass through its doors before. Only Ino, Hinata, and Ten-ten had ever crossed the boundaries of her apartment door, and that was a depressing thought to Sakura. How had she not realized how neglected her love life had been up to this point?

When Sasuke left, Sakura felt heartbreak as she could never have imagined as a girl. She'd thought that maybe, after training as a team, he would have felt enough of a bond with her, or at least Naruto, to stay, to give up on his absurd life mission. She knew now that what she'd felt as a twelve year old girl certainly wasn't _love_. Infatuation? Yes...she had been infatuated. But she had also been his friend, and when even that wasn't important to him, it had crushed her.

Sakura had never looked at another man the way she had looked at Sasuke. She had never really recovered from that total rejection, had never opened herself up like that again. And now here she was, being asked to look at her own body the way Sasuke had looked at his; only a tool.

She opened the door with a hiccup. A small apartment on the outskirts of town; it had always seemed homey to her, but tonight it seemed a hovel. If only she had Ino's skill, Ino's voluptuous body, her _come hither_ blue eyes. How was she supposed to look more mature? She had _pink hair_! Cute was all she had! In frustration, she slammed the door behind her and stomped all the way to her room. The sake ran powerfully through her veins, but not in a bad way; her high chakra level meant she burned off alcohol quickly. As she stomped, she stripped off clothes.

Switching on the light in her room, she took a deep breath and turned to face the mirror.

'_Not terrible,_' her brain said quietly. Her green eyes scrupulously examined every inch of her own body, starting from her smallish feet. She had always liked the size of her feet, as they concentrated chakra in a way that men's just didn't. But looking with Ino's eyes, she saw fashionable, delicate shoes. Strong calves and hard thighs; these weren't bad either, but many men liked a woman's soft, pliable legs, if Ino's grumbling was true. She bit her lip and moved on. It wasn't as though she could change her legs. A tuft of cotton-candy pink hair at the apex of her thighs, a flat stomach with rolling abs underneath smooth skin, and two breasts that looked bigger than she'd expected, proportionally. They were usually tightly bound, as she didn't like to deal with them bouncing during combat.

Sakura sighed in defeat. She had skin smooth of flaws, but she was hardly an image taken from one of Jiraiya's novels. Those women were all lush curves and sultry eyes. She couldn't look sultry if she tried. She tried pouty, but even _she_ cringed to look at herself.

Giving up, she threw on some old sweats and an oversized T-shirt before crawling into bed.

* * *

"Sa-Sakura..."

Sakura shifted in her bed, a warm flush creeping over her as a deep male voice moaned her name.

"Sakura-chan...please..."

Goosebumps rose on her skin. Sasuke's face surfaced in her mind, calling to her gently. His voice would be so deep now, and when he called her name...

"Please wake up."

Sakura's eyes abruptly opened. She sat up in her dark room, senses instantly tingling. It was strange for her to sleep so deeply; it must have been the alcohol. She scanned her dark bedroom, but saw nothing. A heavy sound from her living room had every hair on her body quivering. She switched instantly to the stealthy shinobi, rising from the bed and padding across the floor without a sound. Her hand was already tight around a kunai, ready for a very, very unlucky intruder. '_I've had a bad night, so you'd better get out of my apartment_...'

She rounded the corner prepared to throw, but the sight on her floor made her arm instantly seize.

"Sensei!" she gasped, dropping the kunai. Her silver-haired sensei was kneeling on her floor, looking considerably more embarrassed than he usually did. Just from the silhouette, she could count four kunai sticking out of him. He had trailed quite a lot of blood coming in through the window, but Sakura immediately rushed to turn on a lamp.

It looked even worse in the light. The silhouette had fooled her; there were _six_ kunai buried in her sensei. Sakura caught sight of a mask facedown on the floor and frowned.

"You're not part of ANBU," she said quietly, placing her hand beside one kunai as she began to pull. As she pulled, she also mended the wound, but that didn't make it less painful for Kakashi. He didn't protest, though, and only made a low grunt in his throat. "Why are you running around with them?"

"Helping with training," he groaned as the kunai emerged entirely. Sakura finished carefully healing the wound. "They asked me. New guy set off a trap in Hidden Mist." He spoke in rough sentences, and his voice sounded watery. Sakura moved quickly to the kunai in his chest, which may have punctured a lung.

"Why didn't you go to the hospital, sensei?" she asked him tiredly. He didn't answer her, and she knew why. Kakashi hated hospitals more than almost anything, and would obviously prefer to find his favorite medic to patch him up and release him. He made a sound deep in his chest as she pulled, and she knew that the pain must be agonizing. "You know I'm recording this anyways, right?"

"Stop...calling me...sensei," he panted, his dark eye glinting with what could have been humor. "Not...teacher anymore."

"Caveman now?" she teased, fully drawing the second kunai. He cringed, but handled this one better. Sakura sighed as she dropped it on the floor. Now that the shock had faded and she knew he would be alright, she mourned over the bloodstains all over her floor. She'd just gotten the carpet put in! "God, do you owe me for this one!"

"I'll buy you...dinner..." he gasped. She rolled her eyes and started on another kunai. This one was particularly deep, and she didn't like the way it angled in his ribs. Apparently he didn't either, as he could barely contain another low sound as she began to pull.

"Hospitals have pain killers you know," she muttered, and he quieted. His self control was impressive; Sakura knew that he felt relaxed enough around her to let it up a little bit, but she couldn't imagine the amount of pain he could withstand without a sound if he was inclined to. She felt a little bad for teasing him over it. "Honestly, an old veteran like you, getting filled up with kunai. No wonder you can't show your face to Tsunade!" The gentle scolding held little force. Kakashi's eye crinkled slightly.

"I'm not old," he said quietly. His breathing had evened since she had gotten rid of the kunai touching his lung, probably the worst one. He almost sounded peaceful now. Sakura rolled her eyes and yanked out another kunai. He flinched, but didn't yelp.

"Whatever, _sensei_," she sighed. "You're just lucky that your favorite student it such a good medic." He was silent for a little while as she worked the rest of the kunai out, giving her some peace of mind after her sleep had been so horrifically interrupted. Though he was intruding in her home, Sakura felt more than a little embarrassed to be in ratty old sweats, her hair still shaggy from her quick shower.

Quickly realizing what her mind was still focusing on, Sakura stiffened. She was _not_ feeling self conscious around her old sensei! Huffing a low breath, she healed up the last stab wound. Her words came out more coldly clinical than friendly, and she could tell that Kakashi noticed the difference.

"That's all of them. I want you to stay here for the night and sleep, so I know you're not jumping through trees or something stupid like that. The wounds are knitted and they'll heal fully, but not if you're running around all night tearing them open, okay?" Her voice gentled towards the end. She could tell that he didn't like being told what to do, and knew that if he stayed, it would only be to humor her. "Please?"

"Alright, nurse," he joked, and the tension evaporated. She smiled as she cuffed his scruffy head, then rose. She didn't offer to help him up; no need to wound an old man's pride. He stood with grace though, as though he hadn't stumbled in through her window with six gaping wounds.

Knowing that he would never accept her bed, she began to lay out some blankets and a pillow on the couch. He shrugged out of his vest and slowly removed his shoes. Sakura pointed out the kitchen and the bathroom before returning to bed.

He was silent for the rest of the night, and Sakura could only hope that he hadn't left.

'_Well...technically, he didn't come in through the door_,' was her last sleepy thought before she finally drifted off.

* * *

:D yaaay! please read and review! I'll post more chapters soon :)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters

* * *

When Sakura woke, somehow she knew that Kakashi was gone. Her feeling was confirmed when she stepped through the door of her bedroom to an empty couch, though the blankets were folded neatly on top of the pillow. There was blood all over her clean white carpet, a truly astonishing amount; Sakura would have been shocked if she wasn't so irritated. A single piece of paper was in the mess of dried blood, and she picked it up expectantly.

'_Sorry_.'

No signature, no nothing. Sakura clenched the note in a shaking fist before taking a few deep breaths and letting her hand fall open. She had to get to work, she'd worry about the bloodstains later. If nothing else, she knew how to remove some pretty bad bloodstains.

Pulling on her medic scrubs, she grabbed her backpack and left her apartment, carefully locking the door behind her. There was nothing of value that she kept there, but no need for her to worry about someone taking her furniture or something. Sakura didn't even have a TV.

She dreaded reaching the hospital the closer she got. She knew that Tsunade would call her to her office to see how far she'd come with her scroll, the awful scroll at the bottom of her backpack. Maybe before she was called, she'd meet some nondescript jounin on which she could practice her seemingly latent skills. Maybe. Groaning hopelessly, she prayed for an answer.

Nothing came that morning. Sakura walked into the hospital like she did every day, dropped off her backpack like she always did in the medic cubbies. An intern ran over with a long list of patients for Sakura to check up on, and it was exactly like a normal day. Regular people cycled in and out, and she took temperatures, set broken bones, and healed up burns. She loved hospital life; it was always humming with activity, and she was good at her job. Everybody respected her, and not only because she was Tsunade's apprentice.

Did she really need to be a jounin?

Sakura was satisfied. She had a good job, many friends, and enough time to practice her jitsu. She had interesting missions and a wonderful mentor. She smiled to herself as she pressed healing chakra into a chunin's broken wrist.

"Sakura-chan."

The voice was enough to send shivers all the way down her body, though it was quite warm and friendly. Sakura turned slowly and forced a smile at her beloved mentor, the Hokage Tsunade. The voluptuous blonde raised her eyebrows and smiled a little. "Are you busy?"

"N-no, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura found herself mumbling, though she actually had a very long list of things to do. All of the confidence that had filled her before, all of the convincing that she had done, all of it faded away as she rose to follow Tsunade. Her mind fluttered through everything she had told herself, and now it all sounded so weak. She knew that she had no argument against her mentor.

"Have a seat, please," offered Tsunade kindly. Her face was much too expectant; Sakura immediately began to cast around her mind desperately, but she knew no jounin that Tsunade would find acceptable. "So, Sakura, you know what this is about."

"L-line five," whispered Sakura shakingly. Tsunade frowned, surprised at how nervous her apprentice seemed. "I...I...I don't have anybody yet, Shishou." Sakura felt her face redden as Tsunade looked more and more serious.

"You don't...have anybody," repeated Tsunade slowly. Her frown grew deeper as she leaned back in her chair and stared down at her folded hands. Sakura flinched, wishing she had looked harder. At the same time, her argument suddenly came bubbling to the surface, and she found herself speaking semi-convincingly to the Hokage.

"Tsunade-shishou, I just don't feel like I need to be a jounin," insisted Sakura, feeling bad even as she said it. But her mouth just kept talking. "I'm happy here, I really am! I don't mind just being a chunin medic! And you know, I don't even know many jounin, not older ones, and I don't even know what I'd do, and I feel like it's not even important for someone who's just a medic, so what's even the point, right?" Even as the words spilled out of her mouth, she wished she could suck them back in. Tsunade's eyes grew darker with every sentence, until Sakura was downright frightened. Her folded hands slowly clenched.

"You don't feel like you need to be a jounin," echoed Tsunade. Sakura blushed and bowed her head. Definitely a mistake. "You're willing to deprive Konoha of a skilled, intelligent, powerful kunoichi...just because you don't feel like becoming one? What kind of woman have I been teaching? Are you here to serve the village, or to serve yourself?" Sakura felt her lip tremble, but maintained her self-control.

"The village, shishou..."

"_Damn right_, the village!" snarled Tsunade, bringing her fist down on the table. There was no real rage, though; she could have splintered the table if she wanted, but she didn't. The loud sound made Sakura jump anyways. "I chose you to be my student because I saw talent, smarts, and _beauty_! You were the most promising chunin of your class, and I've been watching you grow for the last two years, but we are not stopping because you're too _shy_ to complete your training!" Tsunade finally quieted, staring at the slightly trembling medic before her. She knew that Sakura had guts, and her potential surpassed her mentor, but none of it would matter if her student didn't have the confidence to do anything important with her life. She still had to escape the towering shadow of her male colleagues, Naruto and Sasuke.

The answer came to Tsunade quickly.

"Kakashi."

Sakura felt her heart stutter in panic as she digested the word. Her eyes widened slowly, and her mouth began to open, but Tsunade held up a hand.

"This won't be as easy as you'd assume, and it also won't be as difficult. You already know what to take from him. However, he still views you as a student, so he is not suspecting, but he is also not susceptible. You'll have to work hard on this one. He's not your sensei anymore, so it doesn't overstep professional boundaries. _I'm_ your sensei." Tsunade sat back, her arms crossed over her ample chest. Sakura continued to stare, a deep blush spreading over her face, all the way down her neck.

"B-but shishou! He's...I can't...that's..." she stammered desperately, trying to find a way out of this disaster. "W-what about...Genma? Jiraiya? Ibiki?" she began to spout off names, but Tsunade shook her head.

"Genma and Jiraiya are too easy, and Ibiki is too difficult. You'll never get by him. Kakashi already trusts you, so you don't have to win him over, but this moves you straight to the part you need to learn. Yes, personal boundaries may be crossed, but he will understand the nature of the job and I'm sure things will be fine between you once it's over and he knows." Tsunade felt better and better about her decision. Kakashi was still young for a jounin, and he wouldn't dare do anything that might physically or psychologically damaging to her apprentice. Also, it might be easier on Sakura if she had somebody relatively good looking on her first attempts; someone like Ibiki would scare her senseless.

Sakura fought for words, but when they failed her she stood and made a hasty retreat from the room. Tsunade felt bad, that this was the way her innocence had to go (maybe not sexually, but definitely mentally), but she knew that this was the best option. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke had ever managed to overpower their old sensei, but perhaps when Sakura did, she would realize the hidden strength behind female sensuality and stop feeling worthless because of the great shadows cast by her former teammates.

Tsunade lowered her head onto her folded hands as though in prayer.

'_I'm sorry, Hatake, for the grief I'm about to give you_.'

* * *

Sakura was distracted and angry for the rest of the day. She dropped trays, she mixed up papers, and she tripped over just about everything that crossed her path. This was an unusual shift for her, and her coworkers noticed it. They seemed confused by the strange behavior coming from the esteemed apprentice, and the hospital just seemed in total chaos to the pink-haired kunoichi.

Seduce her old sensei? How could she possibly...what was she even...how would one even go about that? Sakura felt her face redden every time she imagined it.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, you promised me dinner, right?"

"Kakashi, can you help me with sparring tonight?"

"Kakashi-kun..."

Sakura buried the thoughts and tried to continue work. Maybe if she just ignored it for long enough, everything would just fall into place and she'd somehow make it out okay. She'd _always_ made it out okay. Lost in thought, Sakura ran straight into a table, knocking everything off of it. With an exasperated sigh, she closed her eyes. One of the other medics touched her shoulder tentatively.

"Sakura-chan? Maybe you should take the afternoon off," he suggested, voice high with nerves. Sakura's shoulders dropped in defeat, and she felt her head bobbing in agreement. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as she shuffled off to grab her things.

No need to tell Tsunade, she decided. Her excuse could always be that she was taking the day off to get a head start on her _mission_...ugh. Sakura shouldered her backpack and headed for the door, making a mental note to stop and buy some vegetables from the market on her way back. She always liked to eat healthy, thanks to the things she'd seen in the hospital, and she planned on making a stew tonight.

Just like that, her mission faded to the back of her mind. It still nagged her, but she centered herself on the more short-term goals to complete. '_Leeks, brown rice, cabbage. Did I buy meat yesterday? Yes, I bought chicken breast_.' She felt her irritation grow as she headed towards the public market. She was a fully fledged woman, entirely independent, paying for her own apartment and food. She knew how to wash her own clothes and pay her own bills. So what if she'd never had a boyfriend?

Sakura grumpily paid for her food and left; she didn't even bother trying to haggle with the merchants. At least she had all afternoon to make something nice to eat. Her mind wandered to the big old fish she'd bought the night before, when the fish merchants had sailed in with a fresh catch. If she sliced that up, it would make a very nice addition to the stew. A good stew and some red spiced wine was all she needed to unwind from today. Sakura already felt better, especially when she remembered the sweet red bean cake that her mother had sent her.

As she unlocked her door, she thought of Naruto, and the way he used to wait for her in her apartment after she'd been promoted to Tsunade's apprentice. He knew that she used to cook herself dinner right after work, and sometimes would come over to help out a little and get some food in the bargain. But he'd been gone on a mission for months now, rarely sending word back that he was okay. Sakura didn't mind, but it did get a little bit lonely without her fox-faced friend.

'_Do I really miss having a male presence around that much_?' Sakura thought guiltily. She stubbornly pushed her longing back; it would do no good to admit that Tsunade had been right. The little scroll in her backpack came to mind again, and she shivered before unpacking her groceries and fetching the chicken and the fish.

Heating up a pot of water, she began to chop bits of chicken into it.

The sun went down as she took her time preparing a nice dinner. Cut vegetables, slipped into the stew for just enough time to make them soft, dark red wine from the cabinet, sweet bean cake...everything was a careful construction, a mirror of Sakura's own organized mind. She didn't forget a dessert fork and neatly folded napkins, either. It seemed a good night to treat herself, and from the smell of the lightly boiling stew, it would be a delectable treat indeed. Sakura already felt her stomach begin to react to the smell.

Feeling warm, she opened a few windows. The steam from the stew wafted out into the growing dusk, and she began to ladle herself a generous bowl.

"Yo."

Sakura felt her heart nearly stop, but her hand didn't tremble as she continued to pour the ladle into the porcelain. Only a shinobi's self control could have held her hand so steady while her brain went wild. '_Why is he here? Why tonight? I just wanted to relax!_'

"What are you, a stray cat?" she asked him softly, turning without facing him to draw another bowl. She already knew what he was here for; as though she could have denied it to herself? '_Baka, why did you open a window?_'

"Smelled good," he offered as an excuse, taking the bowl that she held out to him without thanks. He was seated, cross-legged, on her kitchen counter right in front of the window. "I'm surprised you don't get more toms around here." Sakura shot him a suspicious glance, but it seemed to be an innocent comment. He didn't meet her eyes. Lifting the bowl to his nose, he sniffed deeply before putting it back down in his lap. Accustomed to the routine, Sakura pulled a chair around and sat with her back to him so he would eat.

"Also I thought I should probably help clean up the blood..."

"Oh my god, the blood," groaned Sakura, suddenly remembering that her living room looked like a scene from a horror movie. She'd been so locked onto her kitchen that she'd entirely forgotten to open the sliding door separating the two rooms. Kakashi made a sound that was suspiciously similar to a chuckle, and Sakura had to restrain the urge to turn her head and shoot him a death glare. When she heard another sound, she very nearly whipped her whole body around.

"Are you drinking my wine?!" she nearly screamed, the final straw breaking her back. The sound abruptly stopped, and she heard a very distinct clunk as he set the bottle down. Her jaw set and her hands clenched into fists, she felt ready to punch a hole into anything (preferably her invasive sensei). But to her surprise, she felt a light touch on her back. She turned to see Kakashi, mask in place, with a crinkle under his eye.

"You didn't tell me you were such an alcoholic, Sakura-chan," he teased, holding out a wine glass. Sakura felt her anger quickly deflate as she realized that he'd merely been pouring her a drink. She took it, feeling ashamed and embarrassed.

"I'm not, I just...I wanted to spoil myself tonight," she admitted, feeling even worse as she remembered what she'd wanted to feel better about. She looked down shyly, into the dark red liquid. Heat crept up from her neck to her face, and she cursed her veins for betraying her now. Kakashi nodded as though he understood, and Sakura suddenly wished that she could tell him everything, beg him for a token to bring back to Tsunade so that she wouldn't have to carry out this ridiculous mission.

'_Baka...he'd never agree to that. He'd probably agree with Tsunade, and tell on me on top of that, and then you'd be in real trouble!_' Sakura bit her tongue briefly before taking a sip of the rich wine. Indulging in liquor two nights in a row was rare for Sakura, since she'd only recently come of age, but she felt justified considering the tenacity that the next however-long would require of her.

"So...uh...Kakashi-sensei," she began slowly, cursing at herself as the honorific slipped out. Tsunade had been right; Kakashi was no longer her teacher, and if she expected to somehow make him see that, referring to him as her sensei was probably the last thing she should be doing. Her slip-up had made her hesitate, and when she looked up he was eyeing her strangely. She sighed inwardly as his glance slipped back to the half-finished stew he'd left on the counter. Turning pointedly, she heard him move back to the dish and begin eating again.

'_Well, this is going to be freaking impossible_,' she groaned inwardly. _'Tsunade had to pick just the worst person in Konoha for me to practice on. He's more susceptible to my cooking than he is to me..._' An image flashed through her mind, a mirror of herself, but holding a strawberry between her lips, her eyes a hazy emerald. A silver nin leaned forward with his mask below his chin to take it...

Sakura flushed and drove the thought from her head. '_I have _got_ to stop letting Ino get in my head_!' A quick kiss on the cheek startled her into another bright blush.

"Thanks for dinner, Sakura-chan," said Kakashi lightly, waving goodbye. "I left you something to help with the bloodstains!" Like a cat, he was out the window before she could protest. Trying not to grind her teeth, Sakura stalked over to her sliding door and threw it open.

There, in the living room, was a scrub brush, bleach, and what smelled like lemon water. Sakura felt despair at the amount of scrubbing it would take to get the bloodstains out, but when she switched the light on, it was clear that they had already been removed. The water was cloudy red, and the brush recently used. Sakura felt a twinge of affection for her old sensei, who had come back at least to clean up after himself.

But as she stared, she felt a sinking feeling in her heart. He was grateful for her skills and he obviously felt very comfortable with her, but Tsunade had been right; climbing in through somebody's window to mooch off of their food wasn't exactly the stuff of romance novels. Besides the mask, he maintained no air of formality with her whatsoever. He was much too comfortable, and therefore didn't have an ounce of romantic interest in her. Sakura ran a frustrated hand through her hair. She had a lot of work to do, then.

* * *

The hospital had always been Sakura's sanctuary. It was a place where her rough demeanor had been accepted and welded into the community, where people were machines for her to fix and send away. There was nothing emotional about the cold white walls, nothing that gave her fluttery feelings besides a difficult diagnosis.

She'd seen other medics flirt and date, but never once considered doing it herself. Sakura slipped into the rather plain white medic uniform, a jumper with red striped across it. There really was no way to dress it up, considering its high collar and modest length. Sakura brushed her hair again, but really didn't know where to go from there. She tossed her hands hopelessly and grabbed her backpack. No need to stress over it, she had other things to worry about, like dying people.

She made it out her door and down the dusty road, her plain white shoes pristine against the ground. The sound of running feet made her turn her head, and she was surprised to see one of the medics jogging towards her.

"Haruno, wait up!" he panted before slowing down to walk beside her. She recognized his sandy hair; it was Ty, a good looking younger medic that Shizune had introduced her to a few weeks before. He'd been an intern up until only a month before. "Geez, you walk fast!" Sakura felt the distinct chill of opportunity creep up on her, and she recognized a quick chance to test the waters. She laughed more girlishly than usual, flipping back her pink hair. His brow furrowed in confusion, but he didn't comment on it.

"You're up early, Ty," she said in what she hoped was a friendly, inviting tone. It was a little too early for friendliness, but she kept a smile frozen to her face. "Nobody beats me to the hospital!"

"Well, you know, trying to show Tsunade that I'm worthy of a raise," he laughed. So far so good. Sakura tried for what she hoped was a flirty smile.

"_I_ think you're pretty awesome, if that helps," she offered, blushing a little bit, but not terribly. '_Bleh_.' He stared at her for a moment before raising a hand and slapping her heavily on the back. Sakura's breath rushed out in surprise.

"Thanks, Haruno! It probably does!" he said cheerily. Sakura felt her shoulders droop in defeat. No playful banter, no stammering...what was she doing wrong? She'd heard Ino use that _exact line_ on somebody in a bar, and he literally followed her home! Maybe Ty was a little oblivious? Sakura tried a little harder, her embarrassment quashed by irritation.

"I mean, how could Tsunade not like somebody so handsome and charming?" she ground out through a smile that bordered desperate. "There aren't a lot of medics like you around the hospital!" He turned to stare at her, and she wondered if it worked. He didn't look disgusted or confused, but she didn't recognize the expression he wore. Was it...touched?

"Thank you, Sakura," he said, smiling back. "I feel a lot better about asking her now. You're a good friend." He turned and left, and she realized that not only had they made it all the way to the hospital, but also that she had completely failed in rousing a single encouraging response from her colleague.

"Oh my god!" she burst angrily, her hands curling into claws. "Do I have to show up to work _naked_!?"

"Is that what casual Fridays are now?" asked a smooth voice behind her. Sakura flinched and turned to see her esteemed tutor, Tsunade, standing with an apple in hand and an eyebrow raised curiously. Sakura sighed and dropped her hands. "Sakura, could I see you in my office?"

"Of course, shishou." Sakura followed Tsunade through the white halls, feeling more of a failure than she had in a very long time. She had been spoiled, being the Hokage's special pet, and now she felt just like she did years ago, when she was Kakashi's student trying to compete with impossibly powerful teammates: like nothing she ever did could be good enough.

She eyed the stack of folders waiting on a nurse's desk longingly, wishing that she could find her files and just get back to work. She needed to make a little bit more, so she could move into a larger apartment, maybe get a cat to keep her company. She didn't have time to waste running around on silly assignments. This one didn't even _pay_.

She threw down her backpack and sat across from Tsunade, waiting to hear whatever her mentor had for her so she could get back to work.

"Sakura, I'm putting you on a mission."

"W-what? A mission?" gaped Sakura in horror. All thoughts of work flew out of her head.

"Yep, A-class, so you'd better come prepared. You'll be traveling as a team medic with Sai and Kakashi, they have a stealth mission through the Sand Nation. We were hired to deal with an issue they've been having regarding illegal traders, and they need to steal some important documents in order to track a delivery, but Sand doesn't want to get their hands dirty. If they get caught, it would mean much larger political consequences for them. So they're paying us to get the documents."

"A-Class? Shishou, shouldn't they have a jounin medic?" asked Sakura, worried. She wasn't scared for herself; she was nervous that whatever might happen could be prevented by a higher level shinobi medic. Tsunade sighed and leaned back, clearly having considered the same thing.

"Yes, but they're all tasked out to adjacent missions. Besides, they might be better shinobi than you, but I don't have a better combat medic in Konoha." With a rush of relief, Sakura realized that Tsunade was right. Though she might doubt her own physical skill, she did not doubt her healing abilities. She'd seen the worst kinds of injuries and the most hopeless situations; she had pieced ANBU members back together from impossible injuries. She could face almost anything that could be done to Kakashi and Sai, as long as it left them a heartbeat.

"I accept the mission," said Sakura confidently, taking the scroll. Tsunade let out a sudden laugh, and Sakura frowned.

"Really? You accept an A-class, life-threatening mission without a blink, but one little seduction mission..." Tsunade shook her head, still smiling. When she saw Sakura's ruffled expression, she dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "Get out of here, Sakura-chan. Start getting ready to leave tonight. Oh, and maybe you'll get lucky and kill two birds with one stone."

Sakura tried to ignore the wink her shishou gave her, but her ears already felt hot from blood. She threw her backpack over her shoulder and headed out, rolling open the scroll to get an idea of what she would be doing.

'_Team Kakashi will be infiltrating a heavily guarded house, owned by gang leader Toboe Jaku. There will be 3-4 men guarding every entrance to the vicinity, armed with assault rifles. There is a wine cellar unguarded, but it is inside of the 9-foot brick wall encircling the property. There is no evidence of dogs or security cameras._

_The mission is to retrieve a thick manila folder with information regarding the trafficking route of illegal substances; possibly will contain receipts and documentation of prior purchases. Team K can expect it to be kept on lockdown, or even on Toboe's person. Team K is permitted to engage the enemy, but may not allow themselves to be taken captive. Under no circumstances may a member of Team K reveal affiliations to the Leaf Village._

_The execution of Team K will be decided by the team leader, and is flexible regarding changes in circumstance._

_Team K will be self-sustained, and no communications will be available outside of the team, considering the danger posed to the Leaf Village. The time frame for this mission will be 4 days of travel to the compound, 3 days of planning and execution, and 4 days of travel back. The maximum time allotted to Team K is 3 weeks, at which point backup will be sent._

_Team Leader: Hatake Kakashi, jounin_

_Team Support: Sai, jounin; Haruno Sakura, chunin_'

Eight total days of travel? Sakura groaned as she rolled the scroll back up. Showering would probably be out of the question unless they stopped in towns. And she knew what self-sustaining meant in regards to a stealth mission; no supplies brought with them. No shampoo, no food, no nothing. The clothes on her back would be the only things she'd have, and not even her hitai-ate.

In all honesty, Sakura wasn't nervous about her first A-class mission. Kakashi and Sai were two of the best jounin in Konoha, especially in regards to stealth. Sakura felt relieved that Naruto was still off on his own mission, because he would be absolutely detrimental to their team, she knew. That loud-mouth wouldn't make it a second undetected on the compound.

And best of all, she would get jounin pay when she got back! Sakura bit back a squeal of delight. She could certainly afford a larger apartment and a television, maybe a new set of living room furniture too! And she could replace her old, squeaky mattress!

Sakura was feeling much better by the time she unlocked her front door. With any luck, she wouldn't have to worry at all about this silly other mission. If she did well enough, Tsunade might even overlook it, and she'd be on her way to testing for jounin, and making some serious cash! She felt giddy at the thought, imagining what a few years of A-class missions would buy her. Nicer clothes, some decent sportswear, weekends without having to work overtime because your landlord is so strict over rent...

Sakura opened her closet, wondering what she'd wear on the mission. She wouldn't get a change of clothes, so the material would have to be sturdy enough to survive impact, as well as traveling through the forest. It couldn't be too loose or it would snag on branches, or might make noise. She began to reach for her red jumper, but something made her hand stop.

'_Whatever, but if you want to attract an older man, you need to start...well, not looking so naive._' Ino's voice echoed through Sakura's head, and her hand hovered over the red jumper. The skirt was split up the side, but it wasn't exactly an enticing outfit, with its high collar and practical cut. Sakura shook her head slightly. She didn't want to risk the mission because of Ino's silly sense of priorities.

But...did she have anything else that might do? Her hand lowered, and she began to look around her closet. What she saw was disappointing; plain clothes, baggy clothes, formal clothes...she didn't have anything decent at all. But, there! She reached out and picked up a black tank top, one she sometimes wore when doing combat training. It was snug, definitely good for stealth...but the cut was also significantly lower than she tended to wear, revealing the soft curves she often hid beneath her red jumper. It was one of her favorite shirts to work out in, like a long sports bra, but she felt guilty wearing it on a mission for some reason.

She pulled it over her head anyways, and her eye caught a pair of dark green pants folded in the corner. They were soft like spandex, flexible and quiet, but with large cargo pockets on the sides. Honestly, as she picked them up, she wondered why she hadn't worn them before; they were perfect for holding her medic equipment! She slipped the pants up over her hips and buttoned them.

Fingerless gloves for added grip, a quiet pair of sandals, and for added measure a length of white cloth tied around her waist; it would identify her as a medic as well as be useful if she needed to bind a wound.

Sakura looked into the mirror and froze.

What had her body been hiding since she'd given up on boys? Where did those curves come from? After five years, subtle hips had emerged. Her belly was flat and taut with muscle, but her breasts had definitely not been that big the last time she checked. Without a medic uniform or her default red dress, she looked much different from how she generally saw herself. With only a little bit of careful tending, something that looked suspiciously like a woman was emerging from inside of Sakura. And it made her...afraid.

Sakura began to strip off the green pants, afraid of what she saw, when a knock sounded at her door. Squeaking in surprise, she yanked the pants back up and went to see who was at her apartment in the middle of the morning.

She opened the door to see a familiar, eerily pretty smiling face.

"Sai!" she exclaimed, opening the door wider to let him in. "What a surprise. Shouldn't you be getting ready for the mission?" He walked in, a small sketchpad in one hand and a charcoal stick in the other. She rushed back to the kitchen to make some tea, something her mother had always taught her to offer to guests.

"I'm ready," he said simply, sitting back on her couch. "And Kakashi said that we would be meeting here." Sakura felt a vein twitch in her forehead as she filled a teapot. Of course they would meet here. He was probably expecting her to have leftovers from the night before, or make them food before they left. Sai surprised her by wandering into the kitchen and opening her pantry.

"Sai, don't-"

"Oh, look at all the spices!" Sai was already leaning forward and opening boxes and bags. Sakura huffed and continued making tea. Let him play in her food cabinet, there wasn't much he could do. "Can I make something?"

"Knock yourself out," she grumbled. He withdrew from the pantry and looked back at her, his expression as blank and unreadable as ever.

"You're upset." He said it like a fact, not a question or something to be debated. Sakura ground her teeth. She'd forgotten what a pain Sai could be when you took into account his observational skills.

"Little bit," she admitted, sliding up onto the counter. "I'm sorry, Sai. I just didn't know we were meeting at my apartment, and I thought I had the afternoon to myself, and it's okay you're here, but I just wish somebody had told me, you know? Like, I just saw Kakashi-sensei last night, why didn't he tell me that we'd been put onto a mission together? Or that we were going to rendezvous at my apartment? And how do both of you even know where I _live_?" Sakura was surprised at Sai's triumphant smile at that point.

"Kakashi's been teaching me to follow scent trails!" he said proudly. Sakura rolled her eyes in annoyance. _Of course_ they both followed her in the creepiest manner possible. Now that Sai was part of Team Kakashi, he seemed to be picking up some of his mentor's more...questionable qualities. "I'm sorry I came early, Sakura-chan. I don't mean to intrude." His expression was very genuine, and Sakura couldn't help giving in. She knew that Sai would never purposefully bother her, like Naruto.

"Pots and pans are under the sink," she gave in. "Dry food in the pantry, cold food in the ice box, fruit is on the table." A childlike pleasure tinted the serenity of Sai's face as he began to explore her small kitchen. She leaned back against the wall, her eyes closed. She might as well let Sai make them something to eat. She was tired of cooking, and it would make a pleasant change for once.

They were scheduled to leave at seven, which meant that Kakashi wouldn't show up until at least eight-thirty, and then they would eat until probably nine, so it was definitely going to be a long afternoon with Sai. She peeked an eye open and scrutinized his choice of clothing.

Black pants tucked into black boots, and a tight black shirt with red designs. It was very typical for the quiet shinobi. His pale skin was covered with long sleeves, and she could see a dark mask hanging around his neck, suspiciously similar to Kakashi's. She jumped a little bit when he turned his head to look at her with those deceptively innocent black eyes.

"Sakura, it's a stealth mission. Your pink hair is going to stick out," he informed her. Sakura felt her jaw clench, but didn't reply. So that explained the mask, then...Sai was clearly taking this mission very seriously. Sakura honestly had forgotten about her hair.

"I don't know, I guess I'll henge it into another color," she suggested, pulling at a cotton-candy lock. Black, then? She'd always wondered how she would look with black hair, so she wandered into her bathroom and tried out a few different colors.

Black was a no-go...it was too stark against her pale skin, and would make her face stick out like a sore thumb in the forest. She tried a light brown, but it looked strange. Maybe closer to home? A rich auburn looked much better to her, and wouldn't stand out when running through a forest. But...Sakura was struck again with a dull fear. She could barely recognize the woman in the mirror, so lean and strong. She almost looked...curvaceous. Her hair, darkened, made her face look less round, especially now that it had begun to grow past her shoulders again. But it was the wide green eyes, shocked and hostile, that determined this to truly be her.

Sakura didn't like feeling like a stranger in her own body. She released the jitsu and let her hair transform back to pink, making the woman in the mirror recognizable again.

Sai looked up curiously when she came out, but she shook her head, pink locks swaying.

"I'll change it later..."

He didn't question her, but looked back down and continued mixing whatever he'd put into a bowl. Sakura felt ashamed at why she'd chosen not to keep her hair darker, but she didn't even have a real answer for herself, let alone Sai.

Why was this mission so much harder for her?


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

I wanted to do a 10k chapter :( sorry guys...but I hate making them go over multiple days. I'll just post another chapter soon :)

* * *

"God, Sai, this is terrible."

"Sorry."

Sakura choked down a gulp of water, trying to get the horrendous taste of pumpkin spice, wasabi, crushed garlic, sesame seeds, and wildly overcooked pork out of her mouth. The plate had looked dubious at best, and it had only been out of courtesy and kindness that Sakura had even taken a bite. She knew that Sai would not be hurt by her outburst, as he took everything for its base meaning. Sakura telling him his food was terrible was akin to telling him he needed to practice his culinary skills a little more.

"When is Kakashi-sensei getting here?" grumped Sakura, throwing down her fork in defeat. It was almost nine, and she wondered if she had the time to heat up a pizza before he arrived. Well, better sooner than later; she pulled a box from her freezer. Sai mechanically dumped his pork disaster into her garbage bin as she turned on the oven.

It was honestly kind of nice having Sai around. He was quiet, unlike Naruto, but not unlike Sasuke. He wasn't exactly warm; polite was the better word. But he had a very calming presence, and was more than willing to try to help her around her house. It felt sort of like how she imagined having a dog might be. Safe, but not romantic. Sakura knew better than to try that kind of thing on Sai. He was perfect for ANBU, really; cold and disconnected, no sign of emotion in his eyes.

"Yo."

Sakura whipped around, startled at the sudden appearance of a lanky ninja in her kitchen window. She couldn't recall opening it, but she was sure that it wouldn't be any kind of hindrance to a shinobi like Kakashi. Anger followed her surprise.

"It's past nine, Kakashi," she snapped, purposefully cutting off the honorific. His only acknowledgment of the action was a raised eyebrow. "We were supposed to leave two hours ago!"

"My sandal broke," he complained, climbing down from her window. His eye lit up at the sight of the pizza in the oven. "Pizza! Smells much better than pumpkin-pork-whatever." Sakura's jaw dropped, but he didn't even flinch. A crinkle beneath his eye revealed a hidden smile, and Sakura felt her fist cock to take a swing. His hands came up defensively, and he did a neat leap back onto the window sill.

"...you're going to break my window one day," growled Sakura, pulling on some oven mitts a little roughly. It wasn't as good as punching her sensei would make her feel, but it was something. She bent to open the oven, and heard him dismount from the windowsill. The heat from the oven was making her hair tangle, but she was beyond caring at this point. Tsunade could take this stupid mission and shove it up her-

"You're not going to change your hair?"

Sakura threw the pizza pan down loudly enough to startle the two men. They both took a quick step back at the expression on her face. She yanked off the gloves and pointed to her cabinets. Sai began to open a drawer for a knife, but Kakashi raised a challenging eyebrow.

"It's not very subtle."

"Neither is yours!" growled Sakura angrily. Kakashi shrugged and pulled a quick jutsu; with a puff of smoke, he reappeared, his hair now much darker. Sakura, called on her bluff, shot him a grudging look before making a few hand seals and her own puff, reappearing with the auburn hair. He seemed satisfied. Sakura glared over at Sai, but the quiet shinobi had his head bowed and was cutting the pizza into slices.

Sakura was surprised when she felt Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder. She turned, and his expression was rather stern. She quailed slightly.

"Sakura, you can't fight with me like this the whole mission," he said seriously. Sakura's head drooped. This was what, the second day in a row she'd been chastised? She couldn't wait to be a jounin and never have to deal with this again...

"Yes, Kakashi," she conceded. It still sounded strange without the honorific, but he didn't correct her. Technically, she didn't have to call him sensei. "I'm sorry. It's been a tough week." She grabbed a slice of pizza and dug in; they had waited for far too long for Kakashi to arrive, and she was starved. He took a slice, and Sakura and Sai retreated to the table. It wasn't a fight worth having, honestly. They both kicked two chairs around and sat with their backs to the older jounin.

"What's so tough about it?" he asked through a mouthful of pizza. Sakura stopped chewing for a moment, her ears burning hotly. Damn her blush! There's no way he would miss it from behind her.

"N-nothing important," she said hastily, shoving another big bite into her mouth. Sai stopped eating and paused to examine her expression.

"You seem flustered, Sakura-chan," he said evenly. "Your face is very red."

Bad timing. Sakura's fist came down hard on Sai's head before he could even sense it coming, which was impressive regarding his reflexes. Sai was knocked from the chair in his surprise, and stared up at Sakura from the floor, shocked.

"Thanks, _Sai_," hissed Sakura. Both men seemed to ease away from her slightly. Sakura took her time finishing her pizza.

Once she was done, she turned off the kitchen light. Like a secret signal, the men rose and began to climb out the window. Sakura followed them, closing it behind her. No need to invite robbers in her absence. It was very dark outside, and as they ran she wished for the silver glint of her sensei's hair.

They moved silently through the village, eventually taking to the rooftops. Leaping from roof to roof, none of them made a sound; Sakura felt like a cat, light and agile. Once outside of the village, they darted across a field and took to the trees. Part of their mission would be to remain undetected as they left as well as returned, so the pace was intense. Even Sakura found her energy waning fast as they barreled through the moonlit canopy.

A light sound, and all three stopped moving. Sakura nimbly leaped beside Sai, where they waited as Kakashi dropped from the trees. Two dark figures could be made out beside the road. Kakashi walked up to them casually, and Sakura caught the porcelain gleam of ANBU masks. They exchanged words briefly before Kakashi returned.

"Checkpoint," he murmured to them quietly before jumping to the next tree. Sakura and Sai nodded; the Hokage liked to maintain checkpoints in and out of the city, for any friendly or hostile shinobi.

They covered an incredible amount of ground that night, leaping from tree to tree. Sakura knew it would get difficult once they left the forest; there was no way that they would be able to travel like this through Sand country. The pace would slow significantly.

The thrill of moving through trees was one of Sakura's favorites. The silence of her team, the swiftness, and the darkness all filled her with excitement. She suddenly remembered why she had missed missions so much in the first place. Working as a deadly unit was one of the best parts of being a shinobi. When she was a jounin, she would have an incredibly powerful team, too...probably not unlike this one. She suddenly felt very close to her village and her teammates.

As the moon moved across the sky, Sakura felt her breath growing short. Irritated, she pushed particularly hard off of the thick branch she was on and launched herself past Sai, who glanced up at her curiously. She used to have the best endurance, pushing past even Naruto on long missions, but working in the hospital had drained her of her energy reserve. She barely had time to do much for her cardio, and it was showing. But she refused to give out under the grueling pace set by Kakashi.

When sweat began to bead on her skin, Kakashi began to slow his pace, as did Sai. Sakura, if she hadn't been so worn, would have flushed brightly. Obviously they both could identify the change in scent, and had realized how tired she was. Ashamed, Sakura slowed too.

Finally, Kakashi slowed all the way to a stop. While grateful, Sakura fought to maintain her posture. She would _not_ pant.

"I think it's about time we took a break," said Kakashi quietly. Sai nodded, and Sakura was surprised to see a light sheen on him too. Maybe she hadn't gotten as slow as she'd thought? Kakashi, though, looked pristine, if not windblown. Though masked, he couldn't take his hitai-ate with him, and so nothing covered his left eye. However, he held it shut, so as to reserve the chakra that the Sharingan would typically drain. Sakura could see the long scar, slightly raised, in the dim light that filtered through the trees. "I'll take first watch, then Sakura, then Sai."

They nodded, then bedded down in the trees. Sakura hated this part of stealth missions; bags were dangerous to bring with them due to the nature of the mission, and so they were forced to forgo luxuries such as sleeping bags and food. Even though they had eaten before leaving, the energy that she had burned during travel made Sakura feel like her stomach was trying to crawl out of her mouth.

But shinobi were self-sustaining, practical people. Sakura followed her nose to a pine tree and peeled away the rough bark to reveal soft white pulp underneath. She scraped off a handful and then retreated to the deciduous trees, where the bark was smooth enough to sleep on. Stuffing the handful of the pulp in her mouth, she quickly climbed the tree and chose a wide, leafy branch to perch on. Leaning her back against the trunk, she made herself comfortable and chewed her pine wood. It wasn't exactly luxurious, but it would keep her feeling relatively full until they picked up food at the next town.

The temperature dropped, and Sakura wished that she hadn't chosen the tank top. Though the leaves blocked most of the wind, goosebumps still rose on her skin, and she knew it wouldn't get warmer until the sun came up. She began to burn a little of her chakra, to force her blood to pump faster and maintain her body heat. One of the benefits of medical study was an acute awareness of her own functions, and she felt particularly grateful to Tsunade now.

With the fresh spice of pine in her mouth and a rather comfortable seat, Sakura's eyes began to drift shut. The wind hummed a lullaby through the tall canopy that just permeated her dozing mind. Even sleeping, she was aware of the tiniest sounds beneath her. She could hear the rush of an owl's wings, the hesitant footsteps of a doe and her fawn. She could hear Sai breathing evenly two trees away.

But she didn't hear the soft step of her mentor as he lighted in her tree.

A touch of his hand to her sandal, and Sakura's eyes snapped open in surprise. Her heart thumped hard as she tried to recover from the shock of being entirely unaware of his presence. It was too dark to be sure, but she could have sworn that he was smirking beneath his mask, crouched by her feet.

She shot him a dirty look before stretching and sitting up, then standing and shaking out her legs. Only a few hours' watch and she could wake up Sai and go back to sleep. Stalking out on the thick branch, she glowered as Kakashi stole her warm spot on the tree, stretching his long legs out and tipping his head back. Though his eyes were closed, Sakura was never sure if he truly slept. She _knew_ that he didn't when they were genin; he merely maintained the illusion of sleep so as to get them accustomed to the idea of pulling guard duties as a team. But as a jounin team, they would share equal shifts.

She sighed and sat down, her legs hanging over the side of the branch. Tsunade had really screwed her by choosing Kakashi. Sakura herself didn't even view him as more than a mentor, she couldn't even imagine trying to push that line. She honestly wasn't sure how she would even react if it was the other way around.

She rested her head on her hands, fully alert to the music of the forest. She truly loved being from Konoha; nothing could take the place of a cool night in the trees, with the soft sound of bird calls all around you.

Bird calls...Sakura stood slowly, drawing a kunai from a holster on her leg. It was the middle of the night...

Without warning, a shuriken came spinning through the trees.

"Kakashi-sensei!" screamed Sakura, knocking it from the air with her kunai. She half-turned, but he was already leaping higher into the trees, his grey eye wide open while the other was still squeezed shut. Conserving energy for a fight; Sakura turned back at the sound of another shuriken, and let the second one sink into the tree behind her. She was already dropping from the branch.

Sai grunted somewhere, and she realized that they were surrounded.

"Two on the ground, four in the trees!" came a call from above her. Kakashi apparently traced their chakra trails with his Sharingan. "Sakura, on the ground!"

Her feet had already touched. She was ready for the trap though, and she bounced back into the air when she triggered a pressure plate hidden in the leaves. Kunai whizzed underneath where she perched on a low branch. Two shinobi, unmarked, launched themselves at her from their hiding spots.

'_Oh, I've been waiting for this all week_,' snarled her inner voice. Sakura felt a vicious smile spread across her face as she cocked a fist. All of the frustration she'd had to deal with, all of the crap she put up with from her two mentors, all of the stern talking-to's she'd gotten, they came bursting through her knuckles with a rush of chakra.

The second shinobi missed her as she moved towards the first. The force of the blow she released sent him flying backwards through the trees until he disappeared from sight in the underbrush, leaving nothing but a spatter of blood where he'd stood. Sakura turned to the second one, her rage released, but he was gone. Shocked, Sakura quickly scanned the area, kunai drawn. Even if he had reacted that quickly, he should have left a scent trail, a chakra trail, _anything_, but it was as though he'd vanished.

She realized that she could hear nothing from the trees above.

With sudden understanding, she quickly performed the release seal, but it was too late. Someone knocked her off her feet and she was on the ground. Sakura cursed ferociously at herself. Of course it had been genjutsu...she should have realized that he'd performed the seals as his partner distracted her. If she hadn't tunnel-visioned into the first shinobi, she would have realized that.

"Freeze, or I kill the kunoichi!" screamed her attacked. Sakura groaned, her face slowly reddening. '_So embarrassing.._.' He was crouched above her with a kunai ready to sink in through her back to her heart, a foot at the base of her neck; this was a pretty ugly situation. The movement above stopped, and she heard the sound of bodies dropping from the trees.

She turned her head slightly; Kakashi looked alright, but Sai had an ugly cut in his arm that he held tightly with his free hand. She made a mental note to clean it before she healed it, but remembered that she was in a pretty threatening situation. '_Is...this where I seduce him? Is this what Tsunade meant?_' Sakura barely contained a hysterical giggle. The probability of her successfully seducing her way out of _this_ mess was laughably low.

"What do you want?" asked Kakashi in a low voice. More feet. It looked like two of the shinobi from the trees were still walking. None of them wore a uniform or an identifying mark; they must be rogue nin, probably on the run towards Konoha. She would have bet that they meant to rob them, but realized now that they had literally nothing on their persons...

"Drop your weapons," demanded the shinobi above her in a much more confident voice. With only a moment's hesitation, Kakashi and Sai dropped their kunai. Sai emptied the shuriken from his pocket, and laid his tanto on the ground. Sakura cursed at them mentally. '_What are you two doing? They'll kill you both! Pick up your weapons and fight!'_ "Now walk away," ordered the nin. "We're taking her with us, and we'll slit her throat if you try to follow!" Sakura felt her stomach drop; being killed was one thing, but being taken captive was an entirely different scenario. She felt her eyes desperately fly to Kakashi, and was stunned at the rage she saw there. Her mouth opened in surprise, but the nin was already hoisting her to her feet.

She felt him dragging her backwards, his hand holding her arms pinned and his kunai at her throat. At this point, she could have pulled her arms free with a burst of chakra, but something about her former mentor's expression had her frozen in fear. '_He won't let them take you._' Sakura was suddenly calm.

"Don't fol-" he began to repeat what he'd said, but his words stopped as though stuck in his throat. The other two shinobi, who had started to follow him, stopped in their tracks, but it was much too late. Kakashi's eye had snapped open and immediately trapped the captor in a terrifying state of hypnosis. The others, not realizing what had happened, began to reach for their leader, but the kunai left Sakura's throat and the rogue nin sliced his own neck open into a bloody smile.

Horrified, the other two began to back away, but they were too slow. Sai dashed one way and Kakashi the other, and within seconds both were on the ground.

Sakura turned, still wary, but Kakashi's Sharingan was closed again. His expression was calm, as was Sai's. She let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding in. She felt sheepish as they looked down at the bodies.

"Probably should have left one alive," said Sai serenely. Sakura shrugged, when she suddenly remembered the first rogue nin who had lunged at her. Gasping, she ran into the underbrush; she hadn't hit him _that_ hard, had she? Apparently she had. Sakura could tell instantly that she'd broken his neck, and dragged her feet back to the clearing. Sai and Kakashi sighed at her glum expression.

"Yeah, that was probably excessive," admitted Kakashi. "I guess we can at least search the bodies." Sakura nodded and began emptying the pockets of the rogue who had threatened her. Some change, kunai, a first aide kit...pretty much the standard shinobi pockets. There were no kind of identifying papers, but she pocketed the change anyways. Might as well buy herself a soda in the next town.

Her next step brought her to Kakashi, who stopped at the same prone body. She glanced up at him, then down at her feet. Embarrassed, she shoved her hands in her pockets.

"I'm...sorry, Kakashi-sensei," she said quietly, feeling like a genin again. "That was stupid, I shouldn't have been tricked like that...and with a dumb genjutsu, too! It wasn't even good!" She fumed, wishing that he'd at least caught her with something cool, but a sensory loop?! Kakashi laughed and ruffled her hair affectionately.

"He was scared," chuckled Kakashi. "When you're scared of something, you tend to go back to the basics. He just got lucky because you weren't expecting something so simple." Sakura was surprised at how much better his words had made her feel. She had scared him? Well, she _had_ been very angry, and Naruto always told her how terrifying she was when she was mad. Feeling significantly better, she dropped to search the next body.

"Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura in a low voice, holding up a small piece of paper. He took if from her hand; a receipt from a small village outside of Hidden Mist. Rogue nins didn't usually travel in packs, so this was definitely something to report back to Tsunade. He tucked the paper into a pocket on his vest and moved on. Sakura continued searching the body.

"Sakura-chan," called Sai faintly, and she glanced up. His arm! She had entirely forgotten about Sai's arm; in the speed of his movement, it seemed impossible for him to be wounded like that. She immediately stood and walked over to him.

"Let me see it," she said, touching the gash gently. They wouldn't pick up water until morning, so she burned extra chakra to clean the wound. Carefully, she stitched the flesh together, sealing the tears from the deepest point up. Her hand glowed white with healing chakra. "How did somebody get past you?" she asked, smiling. Sai rubbed the back of his dark head with his other hand. It was probably the closest to sheepish that he'd ever looked.

"The shuriken, when we were waking up," he admitted. "I didn't jump fast enough." When she finished, he withdrew his arm and flexed it.

"Don't overexert it for today," she warned. "If something like this happens again, try to use your other arm. It should be okay by tomorrow." Realizing how little time they had, she had put extra effort into sealing the wound; it was worth the extra chakra if it meant the success of the mission. They might not be able to afford the luxury of going easy. But Sai nodded and thanked her.

Sakura looked over at Kakashi, who was inspecting another body. She could be wrong, but...was he moving strangely?

"Kakashi-sensei, are you hurt?" she called, just as he stood. She noticed the slight jerk of his left side when he stood, and from the reluctant look in his dark eye, she already knew the answer. "Kakashi-senseiii..."

"Don't," he insisted weakly as she stalked over to him. His hands flew up defensively, but it was useless. Sakura easily pushed them aside and ran her hands over the thin black fabric, probing for the entry wound. A chill raised the hairs on her neck as she found it; it was a deep puncture wound, much deeper than she had anticipated, and right between the ribs. A faint gurgling in his quiet breath was enough for her to realize that blood was already leaking slowly into his lungs.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she burst, yanking up the edge of the black shirt. He didn't make a sound, though she was sure it couldn't feel very pleasant. It was a testament to his discipline that he hadn't asked her for help yet. Even as she placed her hands over the wound in his ribs, he eased away from her. She took advantage of his evasive movement to push him to the ground.

"Your chakra," he said softly. "You shouldn't be depleting it this fast..."

"Oh, shut up," she replied, stern but affectionate. Warm healing chakra already flowed into the wound, and she focused on forcing his tissue to reabsorb the leaked blood. Her eyes closed as she followed her own burning chakra trail back up through the wound, pushing the damaged flesh together and gently knitting it. Her eyes opened slowly and she jumped when she saw his dark eye trained carefully on her. Her mouth suddenly felt very dry, and every nerve was immediately all to aware of how close she knelt to him in her haste to get at the stab wound.

_Aware_. That was a good word for it. It was as though Tsunade, by giving her this task, had awoken a new kind of radar in her student. She was very, very aware of his probing gaze, the deep breaths beneath her hand, the fast pumping of blood under his skin that she felt with every heartbeat. _She was too close_. Sakura tried to scoot back, but she felt paralyzed. '_Is...is_ this _what Tsunade meant?_'

As a hot feeling rushed to her face, Sakura broke his gaze and looked down, laughing a little. The humor diffused the few seconds of epiphany, though Kakashi didn't laugh. His brow furrowed slightly, but she didn't notice.

"At least I didn't get stabbed," she joked lamely. But he finally laughed, and it was as if she'd never caught him staring at her. "You'd really be screwed without a medic." Sakura smiled and looked up at the sky, the sun beginning to rise. They had wasted a good hour of sleep on these rogue nins, and would have to travel carefully so as to not open any more wounds.

"We'll walk to the next village from here," sighed Kakashi.

* * *

Travel was much slower on the ground. They spent the day walking, since both Kakashi and Sai had healing wounds. '_God, one day into the mission and we're already in miserable condition_.' But, they had taken on a heavy handful of runaway jounin, and that's definitely something to be proud of!

It was easy to imagine what it would be like, to be a medic on a jounin team. She was doing it _now, _which said a lot about her mentor's faith in her. She would have two partners, probably both male due to the proportion difference, and they would have complimentary strengths. They would travel silently as a unit through any territory, and she would go on missions regularly with them. Thinking about it brought her back to when she was part of a genin team, with Naruto and Sasuke.

As much as she liked being Tsunade's apprentice, and working in the hospital, they both knew that they were wasting her skills as a shinobi there. It was easy to be close to her mentor there, but Tsunade had always ensured that she was getting extra training, to hone her talents.

'_And the only thing standing in between me and super-cool missions with twice the pay is_...'

Sakura groaned inwardly. She wished vehemently that Ino had been assigned with her. The unsuspecting nin wouldn't stand a _chance_ against the two of them. She'd have taken his mask before he'd even realized what was going on.

But was that even the goal? Did Tsunade expect her to return with his mask? She'd said it was obvious, but Sakura didn't really understand how. She knew that Kakashi had extra masks, so there's no guarantee that she didn't steal one of them or just buy one. Except she'd have to write a report, and Kakashi would probably be briefed too. Should she steal _all_ of his masks? Icha Icha would be stupid too, because she knew for a fact that he had at least two copies of each book. What, then, could she take from him?

She studied him carefully from behind. A plain black shirt, his green vest...she'd never been to his apartment before, but she couldn't imagine that it was any more elaborate. He was a shinobi, what could he have to take?

Ah, if only she was a Hyuuga. A byakugan would be wonderful for searching people. She could check all those pockets no problem. Sakura sighed heavily. Kakashi's head turned slightly, but he didn't say anything. Sai trotted up next to her though.

"Something wrong?" he asked her, smiling a little. Sakura shook her head, then shrugged.

"I guess not," she said quietly. Then her eyes moved down. "How's the arm?" He held it out to her silently and let her probe it carefully. It seemed okay. Keeping their blood pressure down was probably a good thing, even if it meant that they had to make a large sacrifice in travel time. She argued silently with herself before speaking up again, but louder. "Kakashi-sensei, how's your side?"

"Fine," he replied before pulling out an Icha Icha book and burying his nose in it. Sakura groaned to herself. Typical Kakashi avoidance tactics. She caught up with him and poked right over the wound. Too gently to rupture it, but just hard enough that he almost dropped the book in surprise. She ignored the rather dangerous look he shot down at her, and sent a spindle of blue energy straight down, analyzing for her. It was healing too. Satisfied, she dropped back next to Sai.

Walking was boring. She thought about being a jounin, the apartment she was going to upgrade to, the savings account that definitely needed some filling up...and after that, maybe she would get a dog or something. Maybe a roommate? Sakura eventually ran out of things to think about, and her eyes wandered back to her old mentor.

He walked slowly, in baggy black clothes. One hand in his pocket and another on his book, he didn't make exactly an appetizing picture. He wasn't persistently endearing like Naruto, or ambitious like Sasuke. He wasn't sexual like Genma, who toyed suggestively with his senbon all the time, or over the top like Jiraiya, or too obvious like Lee. He was...a nothing. He was off the radar. A closed option. When Sakura looked at the man shuffling along in front of her, she saw nothing but a lazy pervert.

But that wasn't quite right either. Kakashi might seem silly or slow or entirely uninteresting, but that was merely how he appeared. She had always believed that one's true nature emerged in battle. She had seen Naruto's nobility, courage, and ferocity before, but only on the field. He kept all that hidden when he walked around, pushed it back until he was playful old Naruto again.

Kakashi wasn't just a lazy pervert. She knew that if she threw a kunai full speed at his back, he would dodge it in a matter of milliseconds. Deceptive. Kakashi was deceptive. He might look incompetent, but she had seen his expression the night before. Terror had frozen her as he unleashed the Sharingan, his gaze aimed mere inches from her face. She had never before feared her old mentor, but then again, never had she faced his rage before.

Terror wasn't a good alternative to lazy Kakashi. Sakura suppressed another sigh, lest he or Sai pick it up. Sai would definitely ask her about it again, and eventually they'd realize that she was being bothered by something, and pull it out of her. Sai would be the absolute worst person to find out what she was mooning over.

'_At least he's good looking._'

Biting down on the sound that threatened to emerge from her throat, she quashed the wandering thought bubble. She sneaked a glance at Sai, but he hadn't noticed her twitch. Or at least, hadn't decided that it was important enough to comment on. But it was true...she could have been assigned to _Gai_ or someone. With those hideous eyebrows...Sakura inwardly cringed. Or Naruto...who would never ever leave her alone afterwards, even when he found out it was a test.

When he wasn't being all lazy-eyed, Kakashi was alright looking. She could come to terms with that. She could have pulled worse.

'_And a jounin like him is bound to have a pretty delicious..._'

With a rather loud, embarrassed huff, Sakura stomped that thought to death. Sai shot her a curious look. Kakashi didn't turn this time.

* * *

Yaay! please R&R!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: me no own Naruto :C

Bleh, I accidentally kept referring to it as Sand COUNTRY, when Hidden Sand is in Wind :/ I'm...probably never going to go back and change that, let's be real.

* * *

"Why can't we get a hotel room?" whined Sakura pointlessly, halfheartedly. Kakashi sighed and slapped a hand on her back, partially chiding and also part regretful. He wanted a bed to sleep on, too. "Town is right there!"

"We'll get one in the next town. As of right now, we're not scheduled to get a room tonight," responded Kakashi dryly. "Anyways, we can't even stay the whole night. We have to leave before the sun rises, and that's pretty weird at most hotels." He seemed like he was convincing himself, too, when they prepared themselves for another hard night exposed to the elements. He turned to find a comfy spot by a tree, and Sakura noticed a very slight flinch on his left side.

"Shirt," she ordered. He sighed again, shooting her a dirty look before lifting the hem. Sakura gasped when she saw dried blood around the wound. "How did you reopen it? We _walked_ all day!" But her concern wasn't really with Kakashi, so much as it was with the severity of the puncture. She placed her hands over it, determined to make sure it didn't open again. No matter the cost.

"Chakra reserves, Sakura-chan," repeated Kakashi quietly. Sakura ignored him. He didn't know anything about her chakra reserves. She forced the energy into his body, probably more than was necessary, but she didn't want him to be handicapped for a stealth mission. The wound sealed and resealed itself, the tissues knitting tightly together. It was the gorilla glue of chakra seals. She capped it off with a safe sheen of healing energy at the entrance of the wound, before sitting back to admire her handiwork.

Sai wandered over, after seeing her heal Kakashi, and offered her his arm. She checked it over. It was definitely better than Kakashi's, but probably because the arm used less muscles than the abdomen in walking. She gave it another quick sweep before proclaiming it completely healed. Not even a mark was left behind.

She picked a particularly comfortable looking tree, a smooth elm, and easily climbed to a decent sized branch. Leaning her back against it, she began to drift off immediately, happy that she was on third watch tonight, after Kakashi-sensei. A cold breeze wafted through the air, she Sakura shivered hard. Tonight was not a good night to spend up high. Wishing again that they had gotten a nice warm room, Sakura upped her blood pressure until her body heated itself, and she fell asleep.

"_Sakura_."

When Sakura woke up, she instantly knew that something was wrong. Her mouth dropped open in a gasp, and her body seized violently, goosebumps racing all over her. Her arms immediately wrapped around her knees, and she ducked her head. '_C-cold! Why am I so cold!_?'

"You depleted your chakra reserves while you slept," said Kakashi gently, as though reading her mind. He stood, not quite impassively, but there was little sympathy in his voice. He seemed to feel the coldness of his words, and crouched. "Are you okay?" he asked her levelly. She met his stare with a rather hostile look.

"I'm f-f-freezing!" she forced through chattering teeth. "It's like ten degrees!"

"That's my fault, I hadn't realized how close to Wind country we'd gotten," said Kakashi apologetically. He held out an arm, and after a second Sakura realized it was an offer. Fighting down a blush, she moved towards him slowly. '_We used to do this all the time, on our genin missions...don't make it weird, baka_!' They both leaned back against the trunk of the tree, sheltered a little bit from the biting wind.

"I c-can't b-believe how much ch-ch-chakra I burned through!" sniffed Sakura. Kakashi shrugged, leaning his head back against the tree. His shift was done, after all. Sakura stayed under his arm, leeching as much of his body heat as she could. Her eyes narrowed. "How are _you_ s-so warm?"

"It's easier to control how much energy you burn when you're awake," he said quietly, eyes closed. "But you also burned too much over me and Sai. I told you not to use so much." His eyes didn't open, but Sakura could hear the slightly condescending tone. She growled and stood, leaving Kakashi's warm side. His gray eye slid open to stare evenly at her.

"It's w-worth it, for a cold night," she said in a dangerously low voice, wishing that her teeth would stop chattering. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with her holier-than-thou sensei, so she did a nimble leap into a higher branch. It wasn't much warmer, so she danced her feet up and down, trying to circulate her blood while her chakra levels recovered.

It trickled back much too slowly for her to risk wasting, but the temperature seemed to drop every second. She rubbed her arms, wondering how Sai was faring. He was probably under a bush or something. Or covered in bark. He was much too resourceful to bother with something as silly as being cold. Sakura fought back her own self-doubt, as she felt a rush of guilt over Kakashi's words. He was _right_, is what irked her. What if they ran into more rogue nin? She'd be at a significant disadvantage, not being in good enough condition to fight with jounin. She still had a lot to learn...did Tsunade really think she was ready? Or was she lighting a fire under Sakura's dragging feet?

Her gloomy thoughts were interrupted by the light trembling of the branch under her feet. Sakura whipped around to see Kakashi, gracefully balanced on the branch behind her. His hands were in his pockets, and she couldn't quite see his expression in the darkness.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. She almost lost the words to a passing breeze. "You're an adult. I should be letting you make your own decisions." Sakura stood speechless, her hands frozen over her arms, eyebrows raised.

"Eh? Did you just...apologize...?" she blurted, still frozen. A shadow crossed his face, and he leaped over to her branch. She instinctively jerked back, but his hand caught her arm as she almost fell off of her branch. Sakura thought she caught a distinct eye roll.

"Let's both keep watch. Come on." He sat down and offered his side again. Sakura sighed, but accepted gratefully. It was getting harder and harder to keep from dipping into her slowly replenishing chakra reserves.

"You should sleep," said Sakura, when she noticed his eye still open. A small smile crinkled his eye, but he didn't respond. "We have a lot of traveling to do tomorrow. Please sleep?" He glanced down at her, then sighed, tipped his head back, and relaxed. Sakura sat silently, listening to the sounds of the night, sniffing the air (though her olfactory glands were not near as honed as Kakashi's or Sai's), and enjoying the warmth of...the man next to her.

Sakura risked a peek up at her sensei, but he seemed to be asleep. His breathing was heavy and even, his body entirely relaxed. But his expression...generally, Sakura thought that people looked more at ease when they slept, but Kakashi looked...more intense. His brow took a sharper curve, a small crease formed between them. His face looked almost hostile, with the mask on.

She stared hard at him, trying to see something besides her old sensei. He wasn't _old_. This shouldn't be that difficult. But there was just nothing to go off of. Older men tended to have filled out, attractive bodies, but Kakashi just wasn't a showoff. Sakura wasn't sure that she'd ever seen him without a shirt on, for god's sake. He covered most of his face, she didn't even know if he was hideous under that thing. He had a Sharingan, which she guessed was pretty cool, but probably only because Sasuke did too.

Sakura's shoulders slumped in defeat, and she rested her head against his shoulder. He was a good person. She didn't want to deceive her old sensei, who had taught her so many lessons as a genin. Maybe that was what it was. Someone like Ino wouldn't need to feel attracted to somebody in order to seduce them; she'd merely sustain herself off of the ego boost, seduce herself so to speak. But Sakura couldn't...she knew that she would never be able to fool Kakashi.

She leaned against her mentor until she clocked the three hours. It was time to keep moving, before the sun came up.

"Kakashi." She nudged the silver-haired shinobi gently, but he was awake before she'd even moved. Standing, he didn't say a word as he dropped from branch to branch until he hit the ground. Sakura let him sniff out Sai while she double checked her pockets. Medic supplies were doubly bad to leave behind; they left a trail, as well as leaving her short of goods that she would almost definitely need. When she was ready, she dropped too, and found the boys waiting patiently for her.

Without a word passed among them, they began to run.

They didn't move as quickly as they had on the first night, and they didn't use the trees anymore. The trees didn't grow as thickly the farther they got from the village, and Kakashi probably didn't want to risk opening the wound in his side again, though Sakura was sure that it was entirely healed now. But they still moved very quickly on the ground, and should still make it to the compound before the allotted travel time.

Sakura kept pace easily now. She kept careful watch on the forest, but at the same time her mind was plagued. She had resolved to give up Tsunade's mission. She wasn't ready to be a jounin, and to be frank, she wasn't sure if she could ever be ready to deceive like that. Not someone from her own village.

But...did all jounin really have to go through that? Did they all have to pass that test? Did that mean that Sai...Sakura glanced over at her partner, unable to imagine Sai trying to seduce anybody. Sai couldn't do it even f he had Ino write out a script for him! He just didn't -couldn't!- have the emotional capacity to successfully carry that out! Sakura wished she could ask him how, or if, he'd done it, but it would definitely blow her cover. And what about Kakashi?

Kakashi had achieved jounin status at age thirteen...

How? But...what?! Sakura shook her head, trying to figure out how that would work. Did he seriously have to seduce a jounin...at the age of thirteen? Did that jounin immediately get carted off to _jail_ afterwards?

She became aware that Kakashi was slowing significantly, and felt her body follow suit. She had adjusted to traveling in a unit again fairly well, and was already synchronized with her team. Sai came in closer, as they slowed to a stop near the end of the forest. They stood in silence for a few minutes, listening to their surroundings, but nothing seemed out of place. They moved in close together regardless.

"We can't be seen by the Hidden Sand shinobi either," said Kakashi in a low voice, and Sakura's jaw dropped slightly. Nobody else was in on this? "I'm going to send Pakkun ahead of us. We'll travel downwind, so we have the best chance of detecting any passerby. Once we hit the first town in Wind, we're going to take civilian disguises and travel normally from there. It's not too far from the border, so it shouldn't delay us too much."

Sakura and Sai nodded, but Kakashi held up a finger.

"From this point out...we cannot be taken captive. Not by Sand, not by the compound guards. If you do get taken captive, they will likely want to question you, so hold out for twenty four hours if you can. If you can't, or if the twenty four hours is up and you haven't been rescued...well, you each know at least one suicide-jutsu." Sakura swallowed and nodded. She'd never been on a mission like this before, but tried hard to hide it. '_You're just here as the medic_,' she whispered to herself. '_You're not going to be in the line of fire_.' But...if she lost Sai or Kakashi...

"We understand," said Sai confidently, glancing over at Sakura. She managed a nod, and just like that, the trio began to move again. '_As if I didn't already have enough to worry about_.' Sakura fought to think about something _besides_ how shitty her life seemed at the moment.

As the trees grew scarce and the terrain turned to desert plains, Sakura felt more nervous. It made them very vulnerable, just sprinting through the open fields like this. But she trusted Kakashi's detection skills immensely, and prayed that they would make it through without too much difficulty.

Apparently somebody was listening to her prayers, because they crossed the border into Wind without any encounters. They were moving extremely fast now, and Sakura really had to work to keep up. Even Sai seemed out of breath as Kakashi's demanding pace tore them apart. It was as though his goal was to move too quickly to be seen, until they reached the civilian village that he somehow knew existed.

Really, he was an admirable team leader, Sakura had to admit. He wasn't like Gai...she knew that Kakashi's skill had little to do with hard work, and more to do with natural talent. He was faster, smarter, and more agile than almost any other jounin in their village. If her lazy sensei actually put some work into any of those skills, he'd probably surpass the Hokage, if he didn't already.

By the time they reached the next village, Sakura was more than relieved. Her muscles trembled from the strain of running all day, and from the constant fear of being seen. When the village came into view, she could have wept with joy, if she had the energy. They all slowed to a walk, while they were still too far to be seen. She was glad that for the dim light of early evening, because honestly they all looked pretty suspicious. Filthy, wearing shinobi clothes...Sakura cursed the stupid self-sustainment missions. But they were effective. Without any baggage, they had made it to the village in record time.

"Alright," said Kakashi as they walked, "we're going to check into this hotel separately. Shinobi tend to travel in groups, so we'll be less suspicious by ourselves. Sai and Sakura, you two go check in at the same time. I'll check in two hours after. If you need me, I'll be buying a new disguise." He picked sadly at his dirty black shirt. Sakura laughed and held her hand out for the assigned money. "After I get back, we'll meet up. I'll send Pakkun to get the both of you."

They nodded and set off for the hotel together. She didn't bother looking to see where Kakashi went; it was probably to the nearest bookstore, if she had to bet.

"Is everything alright, Sakura-chan?" asked Sai quietly. Sakura glanced up in surprise. Sai was remarkably attentive, and had probably noticed very early on that his teammate had been distracted. "You've been behaving...unusually."

"Everything is fine, Sai," she tried to convince him, but he merely returned her insistent gaze with an unreadable stare. She shrugged. '_Well, might as well let him know, since I'm giving up anyways_.' She shrugged mildly. "I'm...also on another mission. Nothing to do with this one." Sai's eyebrows raised curiously, and he waited for her to explain. Sakura felt a twitch of guilt as she opened her mouth again.

"I can't really tell you what it is, not until I brief Tsunade when we get back." They were nearing the hotel; almost time to part. "But please don't worry about it, okay? I might be acting strange, but it's just...a difficult mission for me."

"Ah! The chunin seduction trial!" burst Sai, looking more excited than Sakura had ever seen him. She gasped, waving her hands dismissively, but unable to hide her bright pink blush. _'Why why why why'_ "I knew something was going on!"

"It's...no...I don't-" sputtered Sakura, trying desperately to find a way out of this. "W-w-w-we should split up now! Before we look suspicious!" Before Sai could get another word out, Sakura shoved him towards the hotel and dashed away, her blush burning its way across her skin.

_'Sai knows! Sai knows! What if he blows my cover!? What if he tells Kakashi-sensei?_' Sakura's heart pounded its way through her chest, her breathing short and jagged. Slowly, slowly, she calmed herself. '_He won't tell Kakashi-sensei...he knows how important this is...and even if he does, what do I care? I'm done with this stupid mission_.'

And just like that, Sakura briefly mourned her death of her chances at being a jounin. If that's what it meant, to use her body like that, then maybe it wasn't worth it.

'_Shame. I would have made a great medic for a jounin team._'

And, suddenly, she realized what Tsunade had been talking about. All of her bias and stubbornness leeched away, and she was left with cold, hard objectivity. An epiphany, one might say.

'_She...she knows. Tsunade knows what a great medic I am. She _wants_ me to be permanently on a jounin team, for the good of Konoha. She put me on this mission to show me how capable I am...and I'm being stubborn and selfish. Like a _child.'

Sakura bowed her head in recognition and defeat. But when she raised it again, it was with determination.

'_Tonight, I'm going to seduce Kakashi-sensei_.'

* * *

Getting into the hotel was easy. She gave the girl a code name, Raiya Kim, and strolled off with the keys to her very own hotel room. It was the first time that they'd ever been given hotel rooms to themselves. The others might attribute it to the intensity of the mission; Tsunade would be more willing to grant a difficult mission more lavish facilities. But Sakura knew, deep in her heart, why Tsunade had done so.

She opened the door, glad to have a little privacy for once. Though she'd have to have a little conversation with Sai later, about not blowing her cover now that he'd figured her out. A big bed, a TV, and a shower!

With a gasp of unexpected delight, Sakura began to shed her clothes, dirty from travel. She got a shower to herself!

The blast of hot water elicited a low moan of pure, unadulterated bliss from Sakura. She was dimly aware of a low drain of chakra, and with a pop, she released the jutsu that had been disguising her hair. Good old pink. She's have to remember to change it back before they left.

She knew that Kakashi probably wanted to meet up as soon as possible, but they would have to come and pry her out of the shower with a crowbar. Sakura relished the feel of clean lather against her skin, against her scalp. It was heavenly, after days of accumulating dirt running through a forest.

Suddenly, Sakura remembered her other mission. With a blush, she looked down at her now-clean body and took inventory. Four long, healthy limbs...two decent breasts (they _had_ grown in quite nicely!)...a flat, muscular belly...it was just a body. Sakura blushed and straightened, washing the last of the foam from her hair. It was just a body.

A cloud of steam followed her as she left the shower, hair dripping but well-scrubbed. She wrapped herself in a big fluffy towel, then used another to wrap up her wet hair. When she walked into the bedroom, she saw a small, neat pile of clothes. A scan told her nothing; there was no chakra signature. She walked over to the clothes and relaxed when she recognized the scribble on top.

318.

She memorized the room number and burned the note with a flash of chakra. No need to leave that lying around. Then, she began to unfold the clothes. They were a set of civilian clothes, for tonight and the next morning, and then clothes designated for the stealth mission. Sakura set aside the civilian attire with mild distaste. 'Seriously? A dress, Kakashi-sensei?'

She sighed when she began to unfold the other set. Stealth-mission clothes were sexy! A snug long-sleeved black shirt, black pants, two dark belts with shuriken and kunai holsters, she touched each piece lovingly. The equipment budget in Konoha was one of the biggest and most generous in the village. Jounin were treated _very_ well. Black boots as light and flexible as socks, clearly built for speed and silence. A dark camouflaged backpack, for her medical supplies.

Sakura dearly wanted to try each piece on, but she knew that she was already late. The boys might have taken quick showers, but definitely hadn't stood in the shower for twenty minutes, soaking in as much of the delicious heat as humanely possible.

Unfolding the dress, she gave it a grim once-over. It was light, and a little too short for her liking. _Pervert_. Light green with pink blossoms, it would actually be considered quite pretty, on a normal girl. Hinata would pull it off incredibly, with her dark hair and delicate features. Sakura considered herself a little too...boyish, to wear something as girly as a dress.

At least it had built-in support. There was no way that Sakura was going to wear the underwear that she'd been wearing. Gross. She could buy new ones in town, though. She still had a decent amount of cash left over from getting the hotel room. It should be enough for underwear, and dinner! Thinking about dinner reminded her about something else, from a while back...didn't _someone_ owe her dinner for showing up in her living room, blood all over the place, with six kunai stuck in him?

And if she could get Kakashi to buy her dinner, then she'd have enough for drinks! She was sure that her stingy ex-sensei had saved extra cash left over from getting their supplies. Might as well redirect it her way!

Slipping on the white sandals that had been hidden under the dress, she grabbed the key and slipped it into a side pocket before leaving her room.

"Well, _hello_, neighbor!"

Sakura didn't recognize the voice. She turned quickly, and saw a young man standing behind her, having clearly just left his room. A brief analysis left her relaxed. His stance and body clearly implied civilian. He was decidedly not graceful-looking, and though he seemed fit, he didn't have the same breadth and muscle tone of a shinobi. She smiled back at him, unsure of what he wanted.

"Sorry, my name's Shin. I'm stopping by this village on the way to the carnival in the next town," he explained quickly, holding out a hand with a friendly, toothy grin. '_The gap between his front teeth is kinda cute_!' Sakura shook it, feeling silly in her stupid dress, wishing she had her cargo pants on.

"Sakura, nice to meet you." She felt herself blushing a bit. He was very cute, with tousled brown hair and dark eyes. She'd always liked dark eyes. "I'm...just in town to see my brother." This boy was definitely interested in her. Sakura could read it easily, in his friendly posture and bright eyes. She examined them carefully, wondering if she could mimic this interest.

"That's a pretty name," he said smoothly, reaching forward to brush a lock of her pink hair. "Like the blossom? Is your hair dyed pink to match your name, or is it Sakura because of the hair?" His touch shocked her, made her feel nervous and a little giddy. She took note.

"Um...it's natural," she said shyly, tucking a lock behind her ear. She batted her eyes lightly, just like Ino had once instructed her. She knew they were big and green and pretty, probably her best feature. Her overly-friendly neighbor made a nervous swallow, and she gave an internal fist-pump. This was great practice! What perfect timing! And what a cute-

"Sakura."

Sakura's insides froze, as she and the boy slowly turned to look at the source of the sound. '_Oh yeah...the meeting..._' Her ex-sensei stood leaning against the next door down. His dark eye was open, and fixed rather coldly on her new friend. It was a menacing stare, and she could feel the boy's bravado wilting into surprised fear.

She whipped back around and tried to make the best of it.

"I'm so sorry, Shin! I, uh, I forgot to check in with my...uncle. I'd better go!" She waved apologetically before turning to trot over to Kakashi, who was still emanating a horribly hostile aura. "Let's go, _uncle_," she growled, grabbing his arm and yanking him around. That was probably not good for their cover. Shin might not have been able to tell that Sakura was a kunoichi, but it was definitely harder to disguise male shinobi, and Kakashi had done a poor job. The threatening posture was more than enough to get the idea.

"That wasn't necessary," she chided quietly, releasing his arm and walking beside him. To the outside observer, they would look calm and collected. But Sakura could still feel the hostility in him. "I was coming. He only stopped to chat."

"I didn't think it would take you forty minutes," he replied, his hackles slowly coming back down. "Besides, he has no business with you." Sakura laughed a little, and the anger seemed to dissipate.

"Overprotective much?" she teased, and he shrugged in silence. "Don't worry, Kakashi-sensei. I can handle myself around men. I'm all grown up now." She turned to examine his civilian clothes. Well-fitted pants, a button down white shirt, a light jacket, and a light white scarf, wrapped and canted around his face. Very classy. Sakura rolled her eyes. "Why did you get to buy the clothes? I didn't want a stupid dress!"

"It's a more rural village, Sakura," reasoned Kakashi. Her shoulders drooped, mostly because she'd already known he was right. "You'll stand out less if you actually _look_ like a woman." Sakura's retort died in her throat. Did he call her a...woman? She sneaked a side glance, and momentarily, he seemed thrown off by his own wording. He was slightly too still for it to be coincidental. But just like that, he was back to normal. Huh...

Like a woman...Sakura looked down at herself. True, the dress was more revealing regarding her figure, but _woman_? The colors, she'd thought, were rather girlish. But Kakashi had bought them for her, so that meant that he bought something he thought was pretty, right? Sakura took a deep breath and turned towards him slightly.

"So, remember that dinner you owe me?"

He blinked and looked confused for a moment, meeting her rather forward gaze. It was easier to tell, with his eye uncovered but closed, when he lifted an eyebrow. Less easy when one eye narrowed. "Eh?"

"No? Nothing? No recollection of a few pints of blood strewn over my carpet?" she pressed, and he caught on.

"What? I cleaned that!" he fought back, predictably. Sakura had him trapped.

"Doesn't matter, sensei, you told me you'd buy me dinner!" she proclaimed confidently. He glared at her, obviously deciding whether or not this was worth a fight. "Maybe next time I'll just go back to bed," she threatened, nailing her finale. Kakashi sighed and stuffed his hands into his pockets sullenly.

"Fine."

They reached his room. Still feeling good about her success, she decided not to give him too much more trouble tonight.

"Hello, Sakura! I like your dress!" said Sai serenely, pencil in hand. He was already sketching, probably keeping himself occupied while they were away. Or maybe getting a jump start on extra scrolls for the mission, so he could cut down the time it took to make his jutsus. "Very colorful!"

"Thanks, Sai," muttered Sakura, flopping down onto the soft chair beside the bed. Realizing too late that she hadn't bought clean underwear yet, she squeaked and crossed her legs. Both men glanced at her before she cleared her throat and smoothed down her dress. Then, Kakashi began the unofficial meeting.

"Tonight, we'll relax. Get a good night's sleep, eat some good food, mingle with the locals. Don't get intoxicated, don't get injured. This is for recovery from travel. Tomorrow, we'll meet here at seven and head towards the compound. Once we're out of sight from the town, we'll destroy our civilian clothes and change into the stealth gear. There's a forest to the building's east, so we'll head there and then move closer once we're under cover. It's not dense, so we'll move on foot until we get close enough to use the trees.

We'll designate a hideout in the forest, then continue the plan from there."

Sakura and Sai nodded, already on track. The quick brief the day before was pretty much standard across the board, and generally all the same. There was nothing shocking or different in what Kakashi had told them. Sai stretched out on the bed, still sketching, while Sakura rested her feet on the arm of the chair. It was a rare moment of peace in the middle of a dangerous mission. Kakashi stood, looking for all the world an old and tired man.

"I think I'm just going to eat at the bar, Sakura," he said, stretching like a big cat. Sakura felt a pang of disappointment; she had hoped for more to work with. But that wasn't too big of an obstacle.

"Fine with me," she said stubbornly, standing too. She'd be damned if she gave up this opportunity. She jumped back a step when Kakashi's gaze became calculative...or was her mind fooling with her? He was looking calmly at Sai now.

"Sai? Hungry?" he asked the pale, quiet shinobi. Sakura's eyebrows rose. It wasn't like her old sensei to invite others to a free meal. Sai smiled and shook his head, standing and gathering his notepad and charcoal pencils.

"No thank you. I'm feeling inspired, so I think I'm taking tonight for myself." He waved and left them. Sakura watched him close the door quietly behind himself, abruptly too aware that she was alone with Kakashi now..in his room...her ears burned. She turned back, slowly, to see Kakashi staring rather seriously at her. But the moment broke with his familiar eye-crinkle.

"Shall we?"

She walked with him in silence, feeling wildly out of her element. Fear spiked the adrenaline in her bloodstream, and worsened as she tried to calm herself. '_Baka! He can literally smell the fear on you! Calm down_!' It was true. The rise in her adrenaline would give way to telltale changes in her composition; namely, sweat.

But if he noticed, he didn't say anything. Perhaps he was as oblivious as he'd always looked, or maybe he thought Sakura was nervous over something else, not realizing it was him. Because why _should_ she be afraid of him? Tsunade might be right about him being the best target. There's no way he'd realize how much older she'd grown, not until it was too late. And if Kakashi could smell her fear, she might have to guise it under something else.

'_Quick Sakura, LIE_!'

"K-Kakashi-sensei?" Nice. She didn't even have to fake the tremor in her voice. She was so strung out that it came naturally. He turned to her, as sympathetic as she'd anticipated. "I'm...um...a little worried about this mission. I mean, I haven't done a jounin mission before, and I know you've done a lot, so...it just worried me how little information we got. Are they usually like this?"

"I'd be concerned if you weren't worried about your first jounin mission," said Kakashi lightly, comfortably. This was familiar ground to him, it was obvious. "Yeah, we usually don't get a lot of direction. I'm surprised they told us anything about the papers, honestly. But, just do what you do best Sakura. Patch us up and come crashing through the walls if one of us gets caught, and we won't have any problems."

Sakura nodded, giddy that her little lie had gone undetected. The feeling of success outweighed her nerves momentarily, and she did feel calmer. 'You can do this!'

Sakura pulled out a bar chair, feeling slightly more confident. He already trusted her, how bad could this be? '_Don't freak out, Sakura. You've got all night...just...just this one night. One night to suddenly master this...'_

"Sake, please!" she squeaked to the bartender. Kakashi gave her an odd look, but she waved it away, trying not to let her panic overwhelm her again. "J-j-just a little bit. I won't overdo it, promise."

He shrugged and raised two fingers to the bartender, wordlessly requesting one for himself. Sakura took a rather shaky breath, at a loss for where to start.

"Hey, tall, light, and mysterious, mind if I buy you that drink?"

Sakura jumped and whipped around. A woman had come up behind them, a woman with bright blue eyes, thick black hair, and curves that Sakura could never dream of having. Everything about her was everything that Sakura wasn't; the beckoning expression, the confident, sensual stance, she was all grace and elegance and beauty. Sakura abruptly felt very girlish in her dress.

"Sure." Sakura felt her heart thud as her ex-sensei shrugged and agreed. '_Should have figured he'd take the cheapskate way out of this one_.' The unnamed woman took the barstool next to him, her movement as smooth and easy as a cat's. Kakashi didn't watch her though; he was busy ordering food. Sakura watched her with excessive interest. This could be more than competition.

"So, is rest of your face as handsome as what I can see?" she asked teasingly, raising a finger to brush it lightly across the scarf. Sakura held her breath, as she watched out of the corner of her eye. _Bold_. This woman was bold. Invading Kakashi's space had definitely caught his attention, and Sakura dearly wished she could see the look he was giving her. "I'm Hisae."

"Hiro," said Kakashi, offering a hand. Sakura could recognize the distance in his voice, though she might not. "This is my niece, Akane." Sakura bristled slightly; even playing pretend, she couldn't be in the same age range? She wasn't a child! But she smiled and offered her hand too.

"We're just in town for the night, going to see my brother." The cover story was easy. Hisae bought it without remark. But her attention flitted back to Sakura's 'uncle.'

"You never answered my question, Hiro-san," she flirted lightly. Sakura felt her hackles rising. This stranger had no right to her sensei's face. Not when his own _team_ had never even seen it.

"No need to get _pushy_, miss," snapped Sakura with more hostility than she'd intended. Hisae and Kakashi both turned to look at her in surprise. "He's got a bad scar. How about you drop it." She might not be good at flirting, but aggression was Sakura's forte. This woman didn't back down easily though.

"How about you let him answer for himself, _kid_," said Hisae huffily, trying to push Sakura back while simultaneously not losing Kakashi. The combination didn't mesh so well.

"Excuse me? Who's family here?" Sakura felt herself using her status as Kakashi's 'niece' as a weapon to alienate this horrible bitch. Hisae sat back in surprise, but rose back to the bait. Kakashi at this point was edging backwards uncomfortably, trying to get out of the line of fire.

"Excuse _me_, but you're murdering my game, _kid_."

"Stop calling me _kid. _Hag. I'm at least as old as you are."

"Oh yeah? You look like you're fourteen. Must be that washboard body you've got."

"Whatever, pig-face. My uncle's not-" Sakura suddenly realized that Kakashi had disappeared, and that her fist was clenched, ready to clock this presumptuous tart. She glanced around, losing track of the escalating argument. "Uhh...my uncle...I...I have to go."

The woman threw up her hands as Sakura knocked back the sake that had been waiting for her, and left the bar. '_Looks like two sakes on your tab, miss_.' She nearly ran straight into Kakashi right outside of the bar, standing in the lobby. He had that expectant expression on his face, and she cringed as she realized she'd almost assaulted that other woman.

"Uh...want to get food somewhere else?" she offered, her shoulders coming up a little defensively. He raised an eyebrow, not willing to give in yet. Sakura sighed and hung her head. "On me." He smiled and clapped a hand on her shoulder.

"I'd be honored. Akane-chan."

* * *

As she slurped her noodles, Sakura wondered if maybe she should have dropped the stupid mission. Kakashi looked less interested in her than he did in his tempura, and she had just horrifically cockblocked him.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei," she said quietly, frowning into her soup. He didn't quite answer her, lifting another heap of noodles with his chopsticks.

"You know, this scarf is a lot better than a mask," he said rather happily. "I can eat _under_ it..."

"Kakashi!" He sighed and put down the chopsticks.

"Sakura, it's not a big deal. Women like her are easy to come across. She's not my type, anyways." Sakura's brow furrowed. Not his type? She looked like every man's type. Beautiful face, soft, luscious body, hair to die for; how could she not be his type? Her expression asked the question her brain was thinking, and Kakashi laughed a little. "You know, easy."

"Oh. You don't like easy women..." she said aloud, not sure how to process that. Did that mean he liked the chase? How could she possibly play hard to get, when he didn't _want_ her? She didn't notice that Kakashi had stopped eating, and was giving her that calculative look again.

"Why so interested?" he asked, while she was distracted. Her heart raced as she shuffled through excuses until she landed on something decent.

"I-I'm just, well, I'm kind of over Sasuke, and I guess I've been thinking of t-trying the dating scene. But I don't know a lot of men." She patted herself on the back for saying men instead of boys. Kakashi looked less comfortable now. Her natural instinct gave her the perfect strike timing. "So I wanted to ask _you_."

"I can't say I know a lot about dating," said Kakashi, raising his eyebrows. Suggestively? Sakura fought down a blush. He probably didn't even mean anything by that. Right? His expression was serious, but she could swear that there was a laugh in his dark gray eye. Sakura controlled her quickly beating heart with sheer willpower.

"Well, I'm not asking about dating," she said, following his lead and adding a slight suggestive tone to her words. '_Chew on_ that, _sensei_!' She took a bite of her food, leaving the implication hanging as she fought the blood rising to her face. He stared at her now, something different in his eyes. Something dark and frightening; Sakura tried to keep her hands from trembling as she realized that she'd been elevated to an even plane with her ex-sensei.

"What are you asking about, then?" he asked slowly, something changing in his posture. He sat back, arms folded over his chest, challenging her. Goading her on. The eyebrow over his dark eye lifted. The smile was gone. Sakura swallowed, treading water. '_Confidence_.' She would have jumped, if she hadn't been so locked down on her muscle control. Ino's voice, now? But then, when had she ever needed her perverted old friend more? '_You need to be confident, even if you aren't. Just _pretend_, Forehead_!'

"Nothing," laughed Sakura, instinctively giving in to her desire to return to shallow waters, an area that she was familiar with. But just as she seemed to retreat, she took a deep breath and pushed forward again, challenging him right back. "I wouldn't expect you to know anything about it." The bait was set. Ino would be proud. Kakashi looked a little miffed on top of intrigued. Sakura felt drunk off of her own nerves; it was enough to make her brave. Also that shot of sake.

"About what, exactly?" he mused, almost to himself. The ball was back in her court. But the light at the end of the tunnel was bright. Sakura had felt so lost, because she didn't have anybody to help her on this mission for which she was so poorly prepared. She didn't have Tsunade or Ino...but she did have somebody.

"Attracting men," Sakura finally said, leaning forward onto her elbows, her hands under her chin. The lights overhead made her green eyes gleam, catlike. Kakashi's expression was almost unreadable, but Sakura had nowhere to go but forward. "The things men like. I don't have curves like Ino or Tsunade or Hinata, but that's apparently not everything."

Kakashi was interested, but far too comfortable. Sakura knew she wouldn't get far with just this. She had to start pushing the line. Her mind went back to Hisae, to her parents, to Ino. Ino pushed the line all the time; why hadn't she paid more attention?

"I can't speak for all men," said Kakashi, smiling a little. "But...I think...if you're confident, smart, and halfway pretty, there's not a lot you could do to fight men off of you." That was...evasive. Sakura felt a twinge of disappointment. He didn't seem terribly invested in her. He'd given her a very general answer, and he sort of distanced himself from it. Maybe time to push some lines. A shot of liquid courage first...

"_You_ don't seem into me," pointed out Sakura. _Bold_. Like Hisae. "So tell me, what am I missing?" It was definitely bold. But, it forced Kakashi to consider what he'd just said, and make it personal. He scratched his head thoughtfully. He had returned the normal silver hue to his hair, apparently deeming the small town safe enough. Sakura liked it better than black.

"Well...it's hard for me to say," he admitted. Not surprised, Sakura waited for him to continue. She poured herself another drink. She seemed to be doing alright so far...

"You're my student," he said, shrugging. "I mean, you were. It's hard to see you grown up, when I've taught you since you were twelve. You lose your innocence fast in the ninja lifestyle, but it's not something I like to watch."

Sakura immediately felt ashamed. She felt shame for what she was trying to do to him, what she was trying to subject him to. She had defensively curled inwards a bit, not realizing how closely he watched her.

"So, confidence?" she whispered, feeling that crushing self-doubt that she'd had instilled in her ever since Sasuke. She was surprised by how much of that still lingered. Paired with her cruel childhood nickname, it was surprising that she'd gotten this far at all. Confidence was always what she had lacked, always Ino's strongest point. Ever since she cut her own hair in that match...she'd sworn to never let her pride get in between herself and being a kunoichi again. Where had that pride gone?

"Sakura, you're beautiful and talented," said Kakashi quietly. "And you're an adult now. You don't need my help. Or anyone else's, for that matter." He pushed his chair back and stood. Sakura felt...good? Kakashi didn't just hand out praise; getting something like that from him was actually worth something.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei," she managed to murmur, before being struck with shame at her attempted deception. Unable to quell the abrupt self-loathing, she jumped from her chair and wiped a hand across her eyes. No tears, but the feeling didn't go away.

To her old sensei's surprise, she went running out of the restaurant.

* * *

Sakura tried to sort through her rather turbulent emotions, wondering why on earth anybody would put themselves through something as complicated as a relationship. It was so...so _difficult_! Sakura was accustomed to depending on herself; there were no wild variables in her life, nothing that wasn't dictated by her.

She'd never imagined herself with anybody but Sasuke.

Sakura hiccuped slightly. Perhaps she'd had more sake than she'd intended...the world felt a little bit wobbly to her. She sighed, sitting down on the curb. There were no cars. It was much too small of a town for many cars. The pavement felt pleasantly cool against her...bare bottom.

She wished she'd brought the whole bottle with her.

"Sakura?"

Sai stood on the dimly lit sidewalk, just outside of the hotel. He had his notepad in one hand, and a brush in the other. When she turned around, he walked over to her and sat down next to her on the curb. For someone as emotionally detached as Sai, it was remarkably kind. Sakura rubbed her nose and tried a smile.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked him, checking her watch. It wasn't terribly late. But then, most people also didn't stand outside of hotels after dark. He shrugged, holding out his notepad.

"I was drawing, and I wanted to show you," he answered her with a surprisingly genuine smile. Sakura took the notepad, a little thrown off that he didn't question why she was sitting on the curb. Maybe he already knew why...he _did_ know about her stupid second mission. She opened the book and began flipping past familiar pictures. Tigers and dragons, a rabbit eating a flower, a park bench dripping from a spring rain...Sai had always shown his friends, including Sakura, his drawings.

Sakura was struck with sudden premonition. "Sai...did you follow my scent again?" She groaned as he nodded, thoroughly creeped out. But she continued flipping through the book anyways. They really were lovely...

But on the last page, her breath flew away.

It was her. Splashes of color were all over the page. The delicate pink of her hair, like the inside of a rose; only Sai would capture it like that. The vivid green of her dress, the way it held her body like that, the tapering limbs, all grace and loveliness. Sakura wouldn't have known it was her, if she hadn't recognized the color scheme. But, most incredible of all, were the eyes. This stranger's eyes were green like Sakura's, but she was sure that they'd never held light like that. Captured the smoky darkness of a lover's room, reflected it back in pure beauty.

"I...felt inspired," said Sai abashedly, rubbing the back of his head. Sakura stared and stared some more. It was just...she'd never been painted before, and certainly not like this. It captured everything Kakashi had told her, put it into art.

"Sai," mouthed Sakura breathlessly, "is this how you seduced somebody? Because...because that's pretty damn good." She looked up at her partner in awe. He laughed a little, shrugging.

"It's the only way I could, really," he agreed. Then, as if he suddenly realized what he'd said, he raised his hands in defense. "Not that I was trying anything, Sakura-chan! I just thought the dress looked very nice, very different."

"I know what you mean, Sai," Sakura giggled. "It's alright. Thank you. I think I needed that." She reached forward and, in a very un-Sakuralike fashion, hugged her friend. Sai hesitated a moment, before carefully placing his hands around her.

* * *

Kakashi had always liked rain. Clear nights like these made him uncomfortable, apprehensive. Rain disguised his scent, disguised his presence. It was hard to hide in the open.

He didn't quite know how to feel as he walked alone back to the hotel. Annoyed, for one: on top of bullying away his chances of working off some stress with a rather appetizing woman, she'd gone and dumped him with the bill for dinner anyways. But he couldn't be annoyed with her, not really. She was his little favorite, the sweet cherry on top of the horror sundae of his genin team.

But somehow he'd ruined their night. He wasn't sure exactly what happened, but it left him feeling empty and confused. Sakura had always been just a member of the team, practically one of the men. The only reason he'd bought her a dress for a civilian disguise was for practicality. If all of the small-town women tended to wear dresses, then it was the smart thing to do!

But he hadn't expected for her to look so lovely. He hadn't expected the green to bring out her eyes like that, to compliment her tanned skin like that. Perhaps he had been too defensive with her, but it wasn't her fault. His little cherry blossom was grown up now, and since their team had been put back together, it was hard for him to come to terms with that.

So..he chased her away. Kakashi sighed and hung his head. He'd thrown up a wall between himself and his not-so-innocent student, when he had never intended anything like that.

Then what did he want? Kakashi mused over this, wondering where his thoughts were leading him. Because he felt empty, and couldn't understand why it wasn't enough to be her teammate anymore. He wasn't a romantic; Kakashi didn't entertain ideals of marriage and relationships. He was damaged enough as a person to not want to nail some poor woman with all of his emotional baggage.

Sex? Kakashi mused over the thought. She definitely had a woman's body now. She was appealing on not only a physical level, but an intellectual one. And kunoichi never failed in bed, considering they were at peak physical condition. Their endurance and enthusiasm were unparalleled. But Sakura?

Kakashi couldn't really get behind the idea. She might not be his student anymore, but he didn't feel that she was mature enough to make him not feel dirty thinking about it. He wasn't sure what he wanted, then. Maybe he was wrong.

He turned the corner of the street, and abruptly all of the hair stood up on the back of his neck. _Hell_ no. Kakashi wasn't sure what he wanted, but he was pretty damn sure that he didn't want this. He fought the brief urge to strangle his teammate, especially when his narrowed gray eye caught a glimpse of the colorful, albeit suggestive, portrait lying on the ground.

He didn't want to fly into a rage. It was rather unprofessional, and the last thing he wanted to do was cause a rift in his team the night before an infiltration. He merely strolled by, hands in pockets, eyeing the embracing couple with barely controlled anger.

"Make sure you get some sleep," he all but snarled. The pair jumped apart, not hearing his silent approach. He felt mildly satisfied as they picked up and followed him sheepishly back into the hotel. If Sakura was going to bully women away from him, then the least he could do was return the favor. Looks like no one is getting laid tonight.

Besides, nobody was allowed to taint his Sakura.


End file.
